The Sacramento Business Journal has posted an op-ed by FBAC Chairman Ken Monroe highlighting the need to enact further reforms to the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). The piece is behind the SBJ’s paywall, but if you’re not a subscriber here’ are the first few paragraphs:
Last June, the business community, legislators, trial lawyers and Gov. Gavin Newsom reached an agreement to reform California’s onerous Private Attorneys General Act.
PAGA, as it is universally called, was signed into law by former Gov. Gray Davis after he was recalled in 2003. It allows individual employees to file suits on behalf of the state over allegations that labor laws have been violated.
Over the years, it became a gold mine for trial lawyers who file thousands of lawsuits against employers while providing little benefit to employees.
Unfortunately, while some of last year’s reforms have been positive — employees now receive more of any settlement, while employers have an expanded right to cure any violations — it hasn’t stopped the deluge of PAGA lawsuits. In fact, California is on pace to have more than 9,000 PAGA lawsuits this year, more than before the reforms went into effect.
Clearly, further reforms are needed now.
Monroe said it was encouraging that the state’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency has caused a particularly egregious law firm to refile more than 130 suits, and said the best solution is for the state to finally provide funding to the agency to enforce labor laws in a timely fashion. Absent that, he suggested compensating private lawyers at the same rate as state attorneys to remove the windfall financial incentives.
PAGA is one of the biggest problems affecting family businesses in California and FBAC will continue its efforts to really reform the law once and for all.
FBAC is proud to announce BMO as the Central Valley Regional Sponsor, strengthening FBAC’s ability to support and advocate for family-owned businesses throughout the region.
With deep roots serving family-owned businesses, BMO brings a shared commitment to helping businesses thrive across generations. As a regional sponsor, BMO will play a key role in supporting FBAC’s mission to advance the long-term interests of family businesses in California through education, advocacy, and community engagement.
“BMO is committed to supporting family businesses in California to help build stronger communities and drive economic progress,” says Mauricio Romero, Managing Director and Sacramento and Central Valley Market Executive at BMO. “We’re excited to partner with the Family Business Association of California to do what BMO does best — providing the expertise, resources, and financial tools to help our customers, clients and the communities we serve grow and thrive.”
FBAC looks forward to working with BMO to create meaningful opportunities for engagement and support throughout 2025 and beyond.
“We are thrilled to welcome BMO as the newest Regional Sponsor of the Family Business Association of California,” said Ken Monroe, FBA Chair, and CEO at Holt of California. “BMO’s commitment to supporting family-owned businesses aligns perfectly with our mission to protect and promote the interests of family enterprises throughout the state. Their sponsorship enhances our ability to advocate for our members and provide valuable resources to help them thrive.”
For more information on FBAC and sponsorship opportunities, visit www.myfba.org.
About BMO Financial Group
BMO Financial Group is the eighth-largest bank in North America by assets, with total assets of $1.5 trillion as of January 31, 2025. Serving customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a diverse team of highly engaged employees providing a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management, global markets and investment banking products and services to 13 million customers across Canada, the United States, and in select markets globally. Driven by a single purpose, to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life, BMO is committed to driving positive change in the world, and making progress for a thriving economy, sustainable future, and inclusive society.
About Family Business Association of California
The Family Business Association of California (FBAC) is a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization and the only association in the state dedicated exclusively to advocating for family-owned businesses at the California State Capitol. FBA champions pro-family business legislation, opposes harmful policies, and ensures that the voice of family enterprises is heard in Sacramento. As the backbone of California’s economy, family businesses benefit from FBA’s robust legislative advocacy, weekly news updates, economic insights, and peer-to-peer engagement opportunities.
Electric security fences like this one from AMAROK can now be permitted much more quickly.
FBAC, our Statewide Sponsor AMAROK, and other installers of electric fences won a great victory at the Capitol last year when our sponsored bill AB 2371 was signed into law. AMAROK installs 10-foot-high electric fences inside the fence of an outdoor storage facility. These electric fences aren’t lethal, but it is virtually impossible to get past them.
The bill was needed because the average time it took to get a permit in California for this simple concept was 372 days. Some local governments dragged the process out for as much as five years. Our bill provided that, if certain requirements were met, these fences could be installed without going through the permitting process.
With some good lobbying, the bill had unanimous support in both houses of the Legislature and was signed into law by the Governor on an urgency basis, so it went into effect on September 14, 2024. Since that time, in just five months, 450 fences have been installed and another 50 are in the pipeline. Approval times have dropped from that 372-day average to an average of just 16 days!
If this kind of reform could be done in more areas, it would really improve the business environment in our state. Kudos to AMAROK and our lobbying team for a job well done.
FBA Chairman Ken Monroe wrote this op-ed for the Pacific Coast Business Times, which serves Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties. The article suggests that help may be on the way from DC but it’s time for Sacramento to take a hard look at its regulatory regime as well. The full piece can be found here.
Family businesses are the backbone of California’s economy. From family farms to shops and restaurants to manufacturing companies, our businesses don’t just provide goods and services; we create jobs, support communities, and carry on legacies built over generations.
As chairman of the Family Business Association of California, I hear all the time from our members that our businesses are facing a threat that is difficult to overcome: excessive government regulations that affect virtually every aspect of our operations.
Regulatory mandates are often well-intended. They were enacted to provide protections to workers, the environment and the public as a whole. In many cases, regulations make sense.
But too often, they are excessive — and the cumulative costs of complying are a major reason why a steady stream of California companies are moving operations to more business-friendly states.
California has been completely controlled by one party since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger left office in 2011. Under total progressive rule, we have witnessed unbridled spending, tax increases, and a tsunami of regulations imposed on family-owned businesses, making it harder for our companies to remain profitable or even stay in business. Some examples are:
Labor code expansions including paid and unpaid family leave, expanded sick leave and mandated lunch breaks before the fifth hour
PAGA lawsuit abuse
The AB 5 independent contractor three-part test
A $ 20-an-hour minimum wage for employees of quick-service franchise food industry employers
An unfunded unemployment insurance system resulting in higher payroll taxes for employers
And 1,100 pages of law in just the employment arena, making it virtually impossible for businesses to comply.
These examples are only a small fraction of the laws and regulations negatively impacting businesses’ ability to compete with other states in the pursuit of economic growth and sustainable quality of life.
More recently, retail theft, drug abuse and chronic homelessness have added cost burdens and harms our ability to provide a safe environment for our employees and customers. These problems began to explode after voters passed Proposition 47, the so-called “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act,” in 2014. This grossly deceptive ballot title and summary, written by then-Attorney General Kamala Harris, helped ensure the measure was enacted.
The widespread crisis created by Prop. 47 must be solved, which is why the Family Business Association of California strongly supports the passage of Proposition 36 on the November ballot.
Prop. 47 has proven to be catastrophic for California. Its soft-on-crime “restorative justice” policies supported by politicians and prosecutors backed by far-left hedge fund tycoon George Soros aimed at keeping criminals out of jail have made California less safe. The statistics are alarming. According to Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig:
Homelessness has skyrocketed in the state by 51% since Prop. 47 passed, while in the rest of the country it has decreased by 10%
Smash-and-grab thefts have exploded to the point where retail theft is costing California businesses nearly $9 billion a year in lost revenue
Fentanyl is being trafficked over the border and infiltrating into our communities. More than 100 Californians die each week from this deadly poison and more than 20% of youth deaths in California are now due to fentanyl.
Proposition 36, the Drug and Theft Crime Penalties and Treatment-Mandated Felonies Initiative, creates targeted, commonsense reforms by tackling organized and serial retail theft, confronting the fentanyl crisis in our communities, and prioritizing mental health and drug treatment from a compassionate “carrot-and-stick” approach to ultimately getting people off the streets.
Stopping Repeat and Organized Retail Theft
One of the biggest problems created by Prop. 47 was making retail theft a misdemeanor if thieves stole less than $950 worth of property. These thefts remain misdemeanors even if the same criminal steals that much property from many different stores. Prop. 36 fixes this giant loophole by classifying repeated theft as a felony for those who steal less than $950 if they have multiple prior theft-related convictions, and allows stolen property values from multiple thefts to be combined so repeat offenders can be charged with a felony if the total exceeds $950.
It also authorizes judges to impose an enhanced penalty when an offender steals, damages, or destroys property by participating in organized theft with two or more offenses or by causing losses of $50,000 or more.
Confronting the Fentanyl Crisis
Prop. 36 adds fentanyl to the list of hard drugs, alongside drugs like heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine – appropriate since it is much more lethal. In fact, fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin, and according to the Drug Enforcement Agency, just 2 milligrams of fentanyl is enough for a lethal dose, the equivalent of just a few grains of salt.
In addition, Prop. 36 enables stricter penalties for dealers whose trafficking of fentanyl causes death or serious injury and provides warnings of potential murder charges if they continue trafficking as a result of fatalities.
Combatting Homelessness, Supporting Mental Health and Drug Treatment
Studies have demonstrated up to 75% of people chronically experiencing homelessness have a substance abuse or mental illness disorder. Prop. 36 provides critical mental health, drug treatment services and job training within our justice system for people who are homeless and suffering from mental illness or struggling with substance abuse
In addition, Prop. 36 enacts a new class of crime called a “treatment-mandated felony” where offenders with multiple hard drug possession convictions would be given the option of participating in drug and mental health treatment in lieu of incarceration. Finally, Prop. 36 allows offenders who successfully complete drug and mental health treatment to avoid jail time and have the charges fully expunged from their record.
The time is now to correct the destructive policies of Proposition 47 and restore safety while creating accountability and consequences by supporting Proposition 36. If we make crime illegal again, maybe we can look forward to a more business- and family-friendly state that can once again be “golden.”
As California’s only organization solely devoted to promoting and protecting family businesses, FBAC has taken the following positions on four measures that will appear on the November ballot:
YES on Proposition 36, which will reverse the damage done by Prop. 47 in 2014 and address retail theft and homelessness. FBAC is an active part of the coalition working to pass this measure.
NO on Proposition 5, which would lower the threshold to pass local bond measures from 2/3 to 55%.
NO on Proposition 32, which would raise the statewide minimum wage to $18 an hour.
NO on Proposition 33, which would enable local governments to adopt rent control measures.
Prop. 36: California is suffering from a continued explosion in theft and trafficking of deadly hard drugs like fentanyl, often because the people committing these crimes do not face serious consequences. Prop 36 will make our communities safer by creating real accountability for those drug traffickers and criminals who repeatedly steal while also providing meaningful treatment incentives for individuals with mental health and drug addiction issues. For more information, visit https://voteyesprop36.com
Prop.5 is a direct attack on Proposition 13. It makes it easier to raise taxes by eliminating the longstanding two-thirds vote of the electorate required to pass local bonds (borrowed money that must be repaid with interest). All new bond measures for “infrastructure” (nearly everything is “infrastructure”) and for public housing projects would pass with just 55% approval instead of the current 66.7%. Local bonds are paid for with extra charges on property tax bills, adding to the tax burden on homeowners and businesses, leading to higher rents for tenants and higher consumer prices for everyone. For more information, visit https://nonewtaxes.com
Prop. 32 would increase costs on family-owned businesses that can least afford it and force small employers to increase prices for consumers to absorb the higher minimum wage. After the new California fast-food minimum wage law took effect, fast-food prices rose by 7% in six months, the fastest in the nation. Some well-known “value meals” now cost over 40% more in California than the rest of the country. Prop. 32 would bring these record-setting price increases to small restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, small retail shops, farmers, and more, so we’re going to see the same sticker shock everywhere. (Website not yet launched.)
If Prop 33 seems familiar, it’s because nearly 60% of California voters rejected nearly identical anti-housing schemes in 2018 and 2020. The measure is part of a broader anti-housing agenda and would effectively overturn more than 100 state housing laws, including laws making it easier to build affordable housing like ADUs. It would also authorize permanent price controls, even on single-family homes. Non-partisan researchers at MIT estimate extreme measures like Prop. 33 result in an average reduction in home values of up to 25%. For more information, visit https://noonprop33.com.
