Dan Walters: California businesses, left-leaning groups clash on ballot, in court

The state Capitol’s longest running political conflict — going at least a half-century and still counting — pits business interests against a quartet of left-leaning groups.

Specifics vary, but the four group types — unions, environmentalists, personal injury attorneys and consumer activists — propose legislative measures, regulations or ballot measures that would impose new costs, mandates or regulations on business.

In response, affected corporate interests devise strategies they hope will kill or neutralize the proposals.

For more than 25 years, the scorecard for such legislative clashes was a list of “job killer” bills issued annually by the California Chamber of Commerce, roughly encompassing their opponents’ highest priority proposals.

Now the chamber pursues an “affordability agenda” of bills it opposes or favors. That list reflects the voting public’s obsession with living costs, confirmed in a recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.

The perpetual game between business and leftist groups is being played vigorously this year in all arenas — the Legislature, regulatory agencies and the courts — with a prime example being the effort to compel major California businesses to file reports on their direct and indirect emissions of greenhouse gases.

Three years ago, the Legislature passed two measures, Senate Bill 253 and Senate Bill 261, authorizing the California Air Resources Board to require such emissions reports. Business groups strenuously opposed them and after enactment sued, a legal clash currently sitting in the federal Court of Appeals.

Nevertheless, the air resources board recently issued an initial set of regulations for implementing the two bills.

“The world needs climate leadership right now, and California is doubling down,” state Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat and author of SB 253, said in a statement. “We have no choice but to keep making progress to prevent climate-driven wildfires and other disasters ravaging our state.”

California Business Roundtable President Rob Lapsley responded: “If you drive to work, order groceries, receive a package, take your kids to school, go to a ballgame, or visit a hospital — congratulations. In the eyes of California regulators, you’re part of an ‘indirect source’ of emissions.”

He added the designation is “quickly becoming one of the most sweeping ways for California to expand government control over the economy — while quietly driving up the cost of living for everyone.”

Another clash is over taxation in several forms, arising from the state’s chronic budget deficits, financial squeezes in local governments and reductions in federal aid.

Unions and their allies want the Legislature to close what they term “loopholes” in corporate income taxes, particularly one dealing with taxing international corporations. They are also behind two proposed ballot measures, one that would impose a one-time tax on the assets of billionaires and another that would extend an income tax surcharge on high-income taxpayers that is due to expire in 2030.

Meanwhile, Lapsley’s organization and anti-tax increase groups are sponsoring their own ballot measure to overturn a state Supreme Court decision that local taxes proposed via initiative need only simple majority voter approval. That decision has led to a flurry of local sales and parcel tax measures.

“We are organized, united and ready to take this directly to voters in November,” Lapsley said. “Californians want affordability, transparency and respect for their vote. We look forward to a robust campaign that makes the case for protecting taxpayers and keeping the cost of living in check.”

The coalition had proposed a similar measure for the 2024 ballot, but the Supreme Court blocked it from the ballot due to one provision requiring voter approval of taxes enacted by the Legislature. The court said it violated the state constitution.

Eight months from now, after the Legislature has adjourned and voters have spoken, we’ll know who won this year’s version of the game. Then it will begin all over again.

Dan Walters has been a journalist for more than 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. His commentary comes via CalMatters.org, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more, go to calmatters.org/commentary.