We have been been doing a lot of legislative advocacy here at the SLO Chamber to continue to support our business community and region at large. Here’s some of the most important things to aware of.
First, some exciting news: our good friend and long-time government affairs practitioner, Charlene Rosales, joining the Chamber as the Interim Director of Government Relations, and we’re so thrilled to have her back on the team.
At the state level, we’ve been working in partnership with Chambers from the Tri-County region to support bills that help local business and oppose bills that could have a detrimental impact.
The SLO Chamber Board advocated for AB23, a bill that would lower the shoplifting dollar limit from $950 to $400 and allow businesses to prosecute more offenders, but the bill was not able to get out of committee for a full hearing or a vote.
The SLO Chamber Board opposed two bills, AB 1228 and SB 525, related to individual sector-defined minimum wages. If passed, these bills will create a labor market-wide impact and an pick winners in one industry over another without consideration of unintended consequences. AB 1228, a bill that passed, will be increasing minimum wage for employees of food franchises with more than 60 national stores to $20 per hour starting in April 2024. SB 525 is a proposed bill that, if passed, will raise minimum wage of all workers in healthcare companies to at least $21/hour in June 2024 with growth to $25/hour by June 2026.
On the local legislative front, there is a proposed housing and commercial development coming to Nipomo called the Dana Reserve project, which will be in front of the County Planning Commission on October 23 and 24. While the SLO Chamber does not take positions on individual development projects, our Board found a lot of positive policy ideas as part of this project that we will be advocating for at that Planning Commission meeting and at the County Board of Supervisors meeting.
The SLO Chamber Board will support the development of much needed housing, especially projects that:
- build all levels of housing, from deep affordability through market-rate;
- support projects that have an innovative way to create down-payment assistance that could be an asset to the community in perpetuity;
- projects that designate space and incentives to create childcare.
More projects of this scale are needed to help with market competition and ease the housing demand.
These are just a few of the things we are working on with our partners, and we are committed to keeping you informed and make it easier to monitor and stay engaged with the SLO Chamber’s legislative advocacy work being done on your behalf.