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November 2019 President’s Column
President's Comments
By: Steve Weitekamp |
In preparation for a monthly column, I frequently review my most recent work diary. This month, I came across a September 2014 note included in my chapter presentation for the same timeframe. I generally start with a theme and build around it. In 2014, I wrote: “The Two overriding themes of the current California legislature are; Fossil Fuels are bad and any and all steps to reduce their use are good, and Employees need protection. The majority of the California Legislature believe that Independent Contractors are just a scheme to take advantage of employees and for a business to avoid responsibility and taxes.”
Now as then, many disagree on the validity of these ideas, but what is not up for debate is that we have a Supermajority democratic legislature and a like-minded Governor, who by their actions firmly agree with the aforementioned themes.
So, the question is how we address the issues that appear critical to our business models, while attempting to work within a challenging environment. Some propose a philosophy that I first became familiar with in my school days while reading Ayn Rand’s hefty novel Atlas Shrugged. To summarize, it is about productive and unappreciated members of society that pick up the pieces of their lives and leave. The “romantic” notion is that without the doers, the economy will wither and fail. The challenge particularly for movers is that California still is where the work is, with an economy that continues to grow and an extremely large and transient population. To say nothing of the fact that for many of us, this beautiful state is and has always been our home.
So back to the issues. The California Moving and Storage Association (CMSA) has had a positive influence in regulations related to the California Air Resources Board (CARB); sharing the story of the vocational trucking industry, helping to secure delayed implementation, and being party to the process that created a separate implementation schedule for class C trucks.
Regarding AB 5, while not all the news is negative, we still have work to do. CMSA intends to approach this issue from several fronts, including once again attempting to address it through legislation. With the release of a 2020 tentative legislative calendar, CMSA is already setting appointments and working on an Association Legislative Day with the goal of positively impacting the regulatory and legislative environment in which we operate.
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