The Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce has joined with several other business organizations to form The Coalition for California Jobs. We believe that protecting and creating jobs in California should be the top priority of policymakers. Economic growth and job creation are the keys to eliminating the state budget deficit, funding important programs like education and improving our quality of life. Unfortunately, there are numerous examples of pending legislation that will kill jobs. How Jobs are Killed Jobs are killed when employers layoff workers or can’t afford to hire workers to provide goods and services to consumers. Workers are laid-off (or wages are reduced) if consumers do not buy goods and services from businesses, or because the cost of providing those goods or services has increased to the point where the business is not competitive. Consumers will not buy goods and services if they have less money to spend, or if the goods and services are a lesser value (higher cost/lesser quality) than alternatives in the marketplace. Lower wages and fewer jobs are the result of an employer not being successful in the marketplace — when an employer is NOT competitive and/or consumers have no money to spend. Government kills jobs when it passes laws, rules and regulations that discourage investment and production, that add unnecessary cost and burdens to goods and services, or that make California employers uncompetitive. Job killer bills make employers less competitive or take resources from consumers. While there are hundreds of pieces of bad legislation pending in the capitol, there are 23 bills on the 2004 Job Killer list. These bills impose burdensome or unnecessary regulations that increase costs on businesses, create new workplace mandates, increase litigation, expand government at businesses’ expense, criminalize inadvertent business error, or impose new or higher fees and taxes. To see more information on the California Jobs First Campaign and a list of job killer bills, go to www.cajobsfirst.org You can also get an update on these bills and letters by going to the California Chamber of Commerce. Help stop the “job killers” — Write your legislators using our easy-to-edit position letters. Click on the bill numbers below for links to the letters and to check the status of these bills. Please check back soon, as new bills are introduced