California democrat, Lorena Gonzalez (San Diego), is another liberal progressive who simply can’t keep her nose out of other peoples’ affairs. She authored Assembly Bill 5. Governor Gavin Newsom signed it into law because he will sign any law which increases citizens’ dependence upon the California State government. Newsom is a communist with the emotional maturity of a kindergartener. I’ve heard several people refer to Newsom as being a douche nozzle. I’m not sure what that means, but until I find out, I’m not going to argue the point.
AB 5 is a bill which requires independent business people such as Lyft, Uber and DoorDash drivers, and the California Trucking Association (all of which are trying to overturn the bill), to be hired as employees of the firms they serve in order to gain sick pay, overtime, etc. which those firms don’t provide to independent contractors. The problem is that most of the independents nor the firms they serve want such a thing. It’s the same as a waiter bringing you your meal before he knows what you want to order. Yes, independents want more money, but they want to work that out independently. They want the state government to stay the hell out of it. Maybe Gonzalez should have asked them before misusing her time and wasting taxpayer dollars drafting such a bill.
Gonzalez claims AB 5 is a work in progress and will be adjusted later to fit the gig economy. This, AFTER it was signed into law. I wonder if she waits until she returns from vacations before planning where to go. This is just another progressive experiment using taxpayers as guinea pigs in a kindergarten laboratory.
The next goofy thing on the agenda is the idea of offering one-time financial assistance to people such as sports umpires and referees, pharmacists, loggers and freelance journalists to cover the $800.00 state fees of becoming limited liability companies. In that way, they would be able to comply with the law and be subject to the $800.00 annual fees from then on. Do you see her and Newsom’s logic? Gonzalez claims she was expecting blowback from this law. Uh huh. Lots of folks reach blindly into animal holes to see if anything in there needs help. Just like Napa lawyer, Mark Pollock’s, suit which caused the banning of dragees (those little gold and silver cake and cookie bead decorations) statewide in California, Gonzalez just wanted a law with her name to it. Drafting pointless restrictive legislation is a state sport.
Newsom is planning to spend $20M of tax dollars on this stupidity and nearly as much to help non-profit arts programs that are showing “good faith efforts” to comply with the law. I wonder if he makes allowances for murderers who show “good faith efforts” to comply with the laws against murder, but can’t seem to comply. Oh, yeah…he placed a moratorium on capital punishment. My bad. The proposed limited liability company plan should return the $40M financial assistance outlay in short order. No harm, no foul? Wrong! Plenty of harm and foul by every definition.
One other thought. The State of California is required by law to pass a budget each year and is not entitled to raise and maintain more money than the law allows. Currently, California has a $21B surplus with $2B in new tax increases. Kindergarteners haven’t the slightest understanding of how to avoid spending money. Take one to a toy store and see…or you can simply watch Newsom.