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October 8, 2007
Southwest
California Businesses Protecting California’s Economic Vitality
The Temecula Valley, Murrieta and Lake Elsinore Valley
Chambers of Commerce are joining forces with the Coalition
to Protect California’s Budget & Economy. This new coalition
is protecting the new Indian Gaming Compacts negotiated by
Governor Schwarzenegger and the four Indian tribes with
casino facilities on remote reservation lands in Riverside
and San Diego counties.
“We want our business community to know we are serious when
it comes to a balanced budget and job creation, especially
in the Southwest California region,” stated Dennis Frank,
Chairman of the Southwest California Legislative Council
(SWCLC). “Businesses and jobs will be negatively impacted if
the Compacts are repealed,” Frank continued.
The Compacts will provide hundreds of millions of dollars
each year that will help ensure a balanced budget and
provide other needed funding for schools, public safety,
roads, and other programs and services throughout
California. This will total over $9 billion over the next
two decades without raising taxes. The tribes benefit by
being allowed to add 3,000 to 5,000 slot machines in their
casinos. This will also create thousands of new jobs.
The SWCLC is a regional business advocacy coalition of the
Temecula Valley Chamber of Commerce, Murrieta Chamber of
Commerce, and Lake Elsinore Valley Chamber of Commerce. Its
mission is to provide a basis for the three chambers of
commerce to act on local, state and federal government
issues to secure a favorable and profitable business climate
for the region.
For more information and to join the coalition, please
visit:
www.YESforCalifornia.com
April 2006
Attend Networking Luncheon: Impacting Your Business
in 2006: Education, Jobs and Transportation
The
April 2006 "Connections" Luncheon, coordinated by
the Lake Elsinore Valley Chamber of Commerce, will
highlight important legislative issues in 2006 impacting the vitality of the Southwest
California economy.
Topics
will include:
-
Proposition 82: Is it Really Preschool for All?
-
Workers’ Compensation Reforms, Part 2
-
Transportation Solutions For Southwest Riverside
County
Event
Information/Location:
Thursday, April 20, 2006
11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Diamond Club/Diamond Stadium
500 Diamond Drive
Lake Elsinore
November 2005
Businesses "Connect" with
Decision-Makers
Lake Elsinore Chamber presents
the Southwest California Legislative Council "Connections" Luncheon
(Left to Right)
State Assemblyman Ray Haynes,
State Assemblyman John Benoit, State Senator
Jim Battin and
State Assemblyman Russ Bogh discuss important issues
impacting the Southwest California business community at
recent Connections luncheon.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
11:00am to 2:00pm
Diamond Club
Lake Elsinore Diamond Stadium
500 Diamond Drive, Lake Elsinore
The Southwest California Legislative Council (SWCLC)
is a regional
business advocacy coalition of the Temecula Valley
Chamber of Commerce,
Murrieta Chamber of Commerce,
and Lake Elsinore Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Its mission is to provide a basis for the
three chambers of commerce
to act on local, state and federal government issues
to secure a favorable and profitable business
climate for the region.
The
November 2005 "Connections" Luncheon, coordinated by
the Lake Elsinore Valley Chamber of Commerce, provided regional businesses to question legislators
on issues impacting the vitality of the Southwest
California economy.
Topics
included:
- The
November 2005 Ballot Initiatives
- Transportation Impacts
- The Future of Workers' Compensation
- Disaster Preparedness
- Liquefied Natural Gas and Other Energy Sources
- How the Southwest California Legislative Council
can partner with local legislators in 2006
October
10, 2005
Opinions Split on Governor's Veto of Minimum-Wage
Hike
By William Finn Bennett
Staff Writer
North County Times
Area business leaders, employees and political figures have
widely diverging reactions to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
recent veto of a bill that would have raised California's
$6.75 per hour minimum wage by $1 in the next two years.
Small business representatives said last week that the
governor's decision was the right thing, while minimum-wage
workers said they needed the pay hike and find it hard to
live on so little.
Kim Cousins, a director of the Southwest California
Legislative Council, which represents 2,500 businesses in
Southwest County, praised Schwarzenegger's decision.
Cousins said that a $1 per hour increase in the minimum wage
would add to the cost of doing business ---- a minimum of
$2,000 a year for each employee.
"If you have a 20-employee base, you are looking at well
into the 40-thousands," he said. "In many cases, these
increases are life or death to a small business."
Alejandro Aguilar, 26, took a different view, saying that
earning minimum wage was a struggle to survive with what
little he has.
Aguilar, who washes cars at the North County Car Wash on
Mission Avenue in Escondido, said that he struggles to get
by on the $6.75 an hour he earns.
"I have to pay rent and transportation, and send money to my
family in Mexico, and it isn't enough," he said, adding that
to make ends meet, he also does part-time yard work on one
of his days off.
His co-worker, Fabian Leal, 23, said he shares the rent with
two families in an Escondido apartment. He added that he is
not happy with the governor's veto.
"It's a bad decision," he said. "Everything is so expensive
and I can't pay my bills."
In a message to state Assembly members explaining his
decision, Schwarzenegger said he did so because of a
provision in the bill that would have allowed for automatic
adjustments each year for inflation.
However, in 2004, Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar piece of
minimum-wage legislation, and that bill did not have such an
escalator clause.
A spokesman for the governor said that Schwarzenegger vetoed
the 2004 bill because the economy was not strong enough at
that time to allow the increase.
Schwarzenegger spokesman Vince Sollitto said that he
believes that by refusing this year to negotiate a
compromise with the governor, who sincerely wanted to
increase the minimum wage, legislators were trying to set
him up.
"By rebuffing his efforts to raise the minimum wage,
creating a negative political image for the governor was the
intent of the Legislature," Sollitto said.
On Friday, the bill's author, Sally Lieber, D-San Jose,
denied Sollitto's allegations.
"We have tried over a period of months to get a solid offer
from the governor's office and we got nothing but moving
targets," she said, adding that legislators will be back and
she is planning to introduce a similar bill.
The 2004 poverty level for a family of four was $19,157
annually, which would require the breadwinner in a family
with one working parent to earn an hourly wage of $9.21,
according to a study released last week by the California
Budget Project, a Sacramento-based, nonprofit organization
that calls itself a nonpartisan entity, "to increase public
understanding of state fiscal policy issues."
But for that same family to have a modest standard of living
in California, they would have to earn $71,377 a year,
according to the report. That would mean that both parents
would have to be earning an hourly wage of $17.16 each.
A September policy brief from the Institute of Industrial
Relations at UC Berkeley reported that the real minimum
wage, adjusted for inflation, has fallen by more than 30
percent since 1968. The report said that an increase of $1
dollar per hour would directly increase the wages of nearly
1.65 million workers in the state's private sector. That $1
increase would not have a measurable adverse effect on job
creation and would, on average, add about 0.7 percent to the
operating costs of businesses, the report stated.
However, the increase would have a bigger impact on some
industries than others. Fast-food restaurants, for example,
would see operating costs rise by an average of 2.7 percent.
However, the restaurant industry "could easily shift cost
increases of this magnitude to consumers through price
increases of a similar amount," the report states.
Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760)
740-5426, or
wbennett@nctimes.com
Click here for a complete list
of legislation tracked by the Southwest California
Legislative Council in 2005
September 2005
Lake Elsinore Valley Chamber of
Commerce
8th Annual Economic Development
Committee Anniversary Luncheon
- With the Inland Empire’s Premier Economist and Renowned
Economic Forecaster Dr. John Husing
Event Information:
Date:
September 15, 2005
Time:
11:30am-1:30pm
Location:
Diamond Club
Reservations
are required!
Call
(951)245-8848 or email
justin@lakeelsinorechamber.com
$35.00 for
members. $45.00 for non-members.
The Lake
Elsinore Valley “Connections” Economic Development Committee
(EDC) of the Lake Elsinore Valley Chamber of Commerce
announces its Eighth Annual Anniversary Recognition Luncheon
celebrating the accomplishments of the past year and
preparing for a new year of energetic, dedicated and
innovative service to our business community.
Featured at this
event will be the 2005 Economic Briefing by Dr. John Husing.
The EDC is instrumental in assisting local businesses,
attracting new business to our region and creating a
business climate that fosters success for all businesses.
The EDC operates
through cooperative partnerships to identify and achieve
goals through the development and implementation of
carefully planned strategies and serves as the business
community’s greatest resource.
The vision of
the EDC arises from a dedicated group of community members
working diligently on behalf of the business community.
Throughout the year, the EDC hosts monthly luncheons and
business programs which provide members of business and
civic communities the opportunity to network and exchange
information on current issues and events that affect our
valley, while providing valuable information and extensive
business resources to those in attendance.
These popular
monthly events draw attendees from all sectors throughout
Southwest California. One of the highlights of these monthly
events is the Anniversary Luncheon. This annual event is
held to recognize and thank the generous sponsors that,
through their commitment to our community, provide the
funding for the EDC to carry on its work. |
