Hi Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
OP
Randy Harris
Jedi Warrior
Offline
Whoa - go slow here:
In my past life, I was a Legislative Advocate for a large manufacturing industry in California. As such I paticipated in numerous public-record fact-finding sessions with Members and I negotiated at least 6 contracts with the State Dept. of Industrial Relations (Labor Dept.) and Organized Labor.
At one point in a particularly contentious 3 week anti-industry legislative barrage, my colleagues and I came up with a proactive plan to head off further negative legislation. We agreed to voluntarily submit our industry to additional annual registration fees. The fees would be used to clean up the bad actors and help the State enforce labor laws. We agreed to a laddered fee schedule ranging from $200 - $2500 annually. Of course the State jumped at the chance to score more money and the new regulations were enacted with my industry's blessing.
For the past five years those fees have been collected,most at the highest ladder level, and most of the funds have been transferred into the State's General Fund or used for top-heavy administrative salaries. The industry was not cleaned up by stepped up enforcement but the coffers of the State were enriched by nearly $5 mil yr. Further, hundreds of small businesses that could barely afford the old regulatory environment and fees were now forced to pay quadrupled registration fees, putting many out of business or forcing them underground.
Yes, we looked good as an industry stepping up to the plate - and, we shot ourselves in the foot. It's the law of unintended consequences. Please be very careful what you offer lawmakers - they are by nature greedy and not to be trusted!
Randy
'66 BJ8, '68 E-type OTS
In my past life, I was a Legislative Advocate for a large manufacturing industry in California. As such I paticipated in numerous public-record fact-finding sessions with Members and I negotiated at least 6 contracts with the State Dept. of Industrial Relations (Labor Dept.) and Organized Labor.
At one point in a particularly contentious 3 week anti-industry legislative barrage, my colleagues and I came up with a proactive plan to head off further negative legislation. We agreed to voluntarily submit our industry to additional annual registration fees. The fees would be used to clean up the bad actors and help the State enforce labor laws. We agreed to a laddered fee schedule ranging from $200 - $2500 annually. Of course the State jumped at the chance to score more money and the new regulations were enacted with my industry's blessing.
For the past five years those fees have been collected,most at the highest ladder level, and most of the funds have been transferred into the State's General Fund or used for top-heavy administrative salaries. The industry was not cleaned up by stepped up enforcement but the coffers of the State were enriched by nearly $5 mil yr. Further, hundreds of small businesses that could barely afford the old regulatory environment and fees were now forced to pay quadrupled registration fees, putting many out of business or forcing them underground.
Yes, we looked good as an industry stepping up to the plate - and, we shot ourselves in the foot. It's the law of unintended consequences. Please be very careful what you offer lawmakers - they are by nature greedy and not to be trusted!
Randy
'66 BJ8, '68 E-type OTS
