December 10, 2008

In 2008, the Long Beach Chamber focused its advocacy efforts on the 14 most important legislative proposals that would have the greatest impact on the Long Beach business community. The Chamber studied each proposal and took a position of support or opposition by communicating those positions with each Long Beach legislator.

“In past years, we focused our advocacy efforts on more than 50 legislative proposals per year,” stated Blake Christian, Chairman of the Long Beach Chamber Board of Directors. “This year, we decided to take a different approach by working with our legislators to consider the Chamber’s position on the few most important proposals impacting our businesses,” continued Christian.

“The Long Beach Chamber has the responsibility to work with our local state legislators to inform them of our business community’s point of view on important issues,” stated Randy Gordon, President and CEO of the Long Beach Chamber. “Although our legislators overall record remains high in supporting legislative proposals that kill job growth, we are pleased that each Long Beach legislator did considerably well in representing the 14 specific positions of the Long Beach Chamber in 2008,” continued Gordon.

The Long Beach Chamber lobbied Senator Alan Lowenthal and Senator Jenny Oropeza and Assembly Member Betty Karnette and Assembly Member Warren Furutani to OPPOSE 9 legislative proposals and SUPPORT 5 proposals. The Chamber’s positions on each of the 14 legislative proposals are available online at www.LongBeachAdvocacy.biz including summaries and explanations of why the Chamber opposed and supported each proposal.

To reach the “Percentage FOR pro-jobs legislation,” the Long Beach Chamber tallied the number of times our legislators voted for the Chamber’s position on each proposal and divided that total by the total number of proposals in which each legislator voted. A legislative proposal is not figured into the vote record percentage if a legislator, for whatever reason, did not vote or if the proposal failed before the legislator had an opportunity to vote.

2008 Vote Record – In Depth

Not voting = Elected official did not vote.
N/A = Potential new law died before elected official had an opportunity to vote or in the case of the Governor the potential new law did not reach his desk

AB 1394 (Krekorian) Counterfeit: Trademarks
Long Beach Chamber: SUPPORT
State Senator Alan Lowenthal: Support
State Senator Jenny Oropeza: Support
Assembly Member Betty Karnette: Support
Assembly Member Warren Furutani: Support

AB 1839 (Calderon) Sales and Use Taxes: Worthless Accounts
Long Beach Chamber: OPPOSE
State Senator Alan Lowenthal: N/A
State Senator Jenny Oropeza: N/A
Assembly Member Betty Karnette: Support
Assembly Member Warren Furutani: Not Voting

AB 2386 (Nunez) Employment: Agricultural Labor
Long Beach Chamber: OPPOSE
State Senator Alan Lowenthal: Support
State Senator Jenny Oropeza: Support
Assembly Member Betty Karnette: Support
Assembly Member Warren Furutani: Support

AB 2546 (De La Torre) Air Toxics Hot Spots Information and Assessment Act
Long Beach Chamber: OPPOSE
State Senator Alan Lowenthal: Support
State Senator Jenny Oropeza: Support
Assembly Member Betty Karnette: Support
Assembly Member Warren Furutani: Support

AB 2558 (Feuer) Regional Transportation Agencies: Fees
Long Beach Chamber: OPPOSE
State Senator Alan Lowenthal: Support
State Senator Jenny Oropeza: Support
Assembly Member Betty Karnette: Support
Assembly Member Warren Furutani: Support

AB 2716 (Ma) Employment: Paid Sick Days
Long Beach Chamber: OPPOSE
State Senator Alan Lowenthal: N/A
State Senator Jenny Oropeza: N/A
Assembly Member Betty Karnette: Support
Assembly Member Warren Furutani: Support

AB 2938 (De Leon) Water Diversions: Fish Monitoring
Long Beach Chamber: SUPPORT
State Senator Alan Lowenthal: N/A
State Senator Jenny Oropeza: N/A
Assembly Member Betty Karnette: Support
Assembly Member Warren Furutani: Support

SB 140 (Kehoe) Vehicular air pollution: renewable diesel fuel
Long Beach Chamber: OPPOSE
State Senator Alan Lowenthal: Support
State Senator Jenny Oropeza: Support
Assembly Member Betty Karnette: Support
Assembly Member Warren Furutani: Support

SB 840 (Kuehl) Single-Payer Health Care Coverage
Long Beach Chamber: OPPOSE
State Senator Alan Lowenthal: Support
State Senator Jenny Oropeza: Support
Assembly Member Betty Karnette: Support
Assembly Member Warren Furutani: Support

SB 974 (Lowenthal) Port Fees
Long Beach Chamber: OPPOSE
State Senator Alan Lowenthal: Support
State Senator Jenny Oropeza: Support
Assembly Member Betty Karnette: Support
Assembly Member Warren Furutani: Support

SB 1391 (Padilla) Recycled Water
Long Beach Chamber: SUPPORT
State Senator Alan Lowenthal: Support
State Senator Jenny Oropeza: Support
Assembly Member Betty Karnette: Support
Assembly Member Warren Furutani: Support

SB 1539 (Calderon) Meal Periods
Long Beach Chamber: SUPPORT
State Senator Alan Lowenthal: N/A
State Senator Jenny Oropeza: N/A
Assembly Member Betty Karnette: N/A
Assembly Member Warren Furutani: N/A

SB 1608 (Corbett) Disabled Persons: Equal Access Rights: Civil Actions
Long Beach Chamber: SUPPORT
State Senator Alan Lowenthal: Support
State Senator Jenny Oropeza: Support
Assembly Member Betty Karnette: Support
Assembly Member Warren Furutani: Support

SB 1614 (Oropeza) Rental Car Companies
Long Beach Chamber: OPPOSE
State Senator Alan Lowenthal: Support
State Senator Jenny Oropeza: Support
Assembly Member Betty Karnette: Support
Assembly Member Warren Furutani: Support

SB 1391 (Padilla) Recycled Water
Long Beach Chamber: SUPPORT
State Senator Alan Lowenthal: Support
State Senator Jenny Oropeza: Support
Assembly Member Betty Karnette: Support
Assembly Member Warren Furutani: Support