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Dark skies and lame ducks: how private sector employers fared in Sacramento and Washington in 2008.

Article Excerpt
In the last quarter of 2008, both Congress and the California State Legislature concentrated their attention on the rapidly deteriorating national and California economies.

Two days after the November 4 election, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called the legislature into special session to seek solutions for California's $11-billion-plus budget shortfall.1 In his announcement, the Governor said that among his goals to stimulate the economy were "keeping high-paying jobs in California by providing overtime exemptions and allowing more flexible work schedules to increase productivity" and "clarifying meal and rest periods to save businesses hundreds of millions of dollars in litigation costs and create less confusion from meal break violations which will mean fewer terminations." However, the November special legislative session did not result in a solution to the state's revenue shortfall, thus "kicking the can down the road" to the incoming legislature.

Washington, too, struggled in late 2008 to come up with solutions for severe economic maladies on Wall Street, in Detroit, in the housing market, and the in the rest of the American economy.

Before the Sacramento and Washington gatherings of lame duck legislators in late November, some new laws had been passed in 2008 taking effect then, or on the first day of 2009.

Sacramento: The Year of the Veto " ...The Legislature should be looking to lessen the confusion surrounding California labor law, not create more. ..." - From Governor Schwarzenegger's veto message on AB 3063 Governor Schwarzenegger set a four-decade record this year in the proportion of bills he subsequently vetoed – 35 percent. This veto rate compares with rates in the range of 22 to 25 percent during the Governor's previous four years. The Governor's treatment of bills concerning employers' obligations was even rougher. By one estimate, the Governor vetoed 59 percent of all such bills that reached his desk.

What are the important new employment-related state...

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