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California keeps looking for ways to raise prices, drive away more businesses and destroy growth through bad policy and bad politics MCDONALDS USA | CONTRIBUTED
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hether you’re a lawmaker, a business owner or leader, or an everyday voter, one thing is clear: California has become a dramatic case study of putting bad politics over good policy. Last fall, the legislature passed a bill – AB257, or the FAST Act – almost entirely at the behest of organized labor’s firm grip on many of the state’s lawmakers. It makes it all but impossible to run small business restaurants, but the impacts are far beyond that. Under the FAST Act, an unelected council of political insiders, not local business owners and their teams, would make big decisions about crucial elements of running a business, fracturing the econo-
my in the process. As the head of McDonald’s U.S. business and a native Californian, I’ve had reason to pay particularly close attention to the bill and how it passed. But the fallout from the legislation – and lessons to be learned here – matter to all of us, particularly as the Golden State tries to emerge as a model for the rest of the country. Proponents argued that this bill was about helping everyone — especially hardworking people employed by restaurants. But the facts simply don’t support it. No evidence exists to conclude that the FAST Act will better serve workers’ needs. That’s not just my opinion but also the conclusion from the state’s own experts. California’s Department of Finance said, “it is not clear that
this bill will accomplish its goal.1” The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) debunked a core argument of the FAST Act that claimed wage theft was disproportionately high in quick service restaurants. In fact, DIR said wage theft is up to five times lower at quick service restaurants than in other industries.2 Three of the foremost and most credible media outlets in the country – The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Bloomberg – unanimously said the bill was predicated on false promises, with one simply stating that it’s a “recipe for higher restaurant prices and lower business and job growth.” Economists estimated AB257 would drive up the price of eating at a quick service restaurant in California by 20% at a time when people can least af-
THE FAST RECOVERY ACT: McDonald’s exec slams the FAST Act in open letter. | Courtesy Photo of John Greim/ LightRocket via Getty Images ford it. Even more perplexing are final-hour exemptions that reek of backroom, special-interest negotiations in Sacramento (or maybe Napa Valley). One carveo-
ut says that the law doesn’t apply to certain restaurants that bake bread on-site. Another exempts restaurant brands with fewer than 100 locations nationwide. Carveouts like these
pit local businesses against each other and undermine the goal of helping all restaurant workers.
See FAST on page D4
California will try to enshrine right to same-sex marriage CONTRIBUTING EDITOR | AP NEWS
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alifornia, a U.S. trendsetter for progressive policies and a state where the current governor once made news issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in San Francisco before it was legal, will attempt to enshrine marriage equality in the state constitution. The effort comes 15 years after a voter-approved initiative, called Proposition 8, banned the state from recognizing same-sex marriages. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California. The constitutional amendment is still on the books, however, and that worries advocates who think the high court may revisit the 2015 case that legalized gay marriage nationwide. “It’s absolute poison, it is so destructive and it’s humiliating that this is in our constitution,” said Democrat Scott Wiener, a state senator who represents San Francisco. He and Democratic Assembly Member Evan Low of Silicon Valley plan to introduce legislation Tuesday to rescind Proposition 8. The measure would need to be approved in the Legisla-
ture by a two-thirds vote, and then it will ultimately fall to voters to decide via a referendum. In the days leading up to Proposition 8’s approval, Low joined opponents of the measure outside his alma mater De Anza College in Cupertino, California, to call on voters to reject the initiative. When it passed, it felt personal to Low, who is gay. “Why do fellow Californians hate me?” he said. “Why do they feel that my rights should be eliminated?” California could follow in the footsteps of Nevada, which in 2020 became the first state to amend its constitution to ensure the right to same-sex marriage. The matter took on fresh urgency last year when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the right to an abortion established by Roe v. Wade. At the time, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called into question other prominent cases and urged the court to reconsider them. His list included Obergefell v. Hodges, which forced states to issue and recognize same-sex marriages. “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, includ-
ing Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote, referencing two other landmark cases involving access to birth control and a decision striking down laws against samesex sexual activity. In December, President Joe Biden signed into law the Respect for Marriage Act, which requires states to recognize same-sex marriages, but the legislation doesn’t force states to allow them if Obergefell is overturned. Wiener and Low, the two California lawmakers, hope to replicate the process under which state voters in November approved a constitutional change guaranteeing the right to abortion. Proposition 8 has yet to be repealed because there was less urgency to do so after the state was allowed to resume issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples and gay marriage was legalized nationwide, Wiener said. “It became a fire drill once the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade,” he said. The path to marriage equality in the Golden State was uneven. In 2000, voters approved a statute that
See ADVOCATES on page D4
INNOVATION: Cutting-edge plant research at UCR. Courtesy University of California, Riverside. | Courtesy Photo of Riversideca.gov
UCR’s OASIS Innovation Hub Turns Research into Action
RIVERSIDECA.ORG | CONTRIBUTED
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conomic development and outreach are typically not the first things that come to mind in top-tier research universities, but an ambitious initiative led by the University of California, Riverside, sets out to change that. “We are moving beyond traditional research and scholarly work to engage with the community and contribute to economic development as one of only 20 R1 Hispanic-serving universities in the country,” said Rodolfo Torres, UCR vice chancellor of Research and Economic Development. The Opportunities to Advance Sustainability, In-
novation, and Social Inclusion, or OASIS, is a partnership between public and private stakeholders to drive regional economic development through applied research, innovation, entrepreneurship, and workforce development around sustainability, clean technology, and social inclusion. “The combination of UCR’s impressive student success and diversity, the great research already taking place on campus, and opportunities for economic growth in the region puts us in a unique position to have a more prominent and clear impact on the Inland Empire and beyond,” Torres said. The first phase of OASIS, which consists of physical infrastructure and pro-
grammatic activities, is establishing a clean technology park anchoring diverse stakeholders interested in clean energy, sustainable transportation, agriculture, community health, and natural resources. The initiative received state and federal funding to secure an 8-acre site along University Avenue, building upon the City of Riverside’s planned innovation corridor between downtown and the UCR campus. Torres said the clean technology park is not a typical development for the university. “The park will anchor research laboratories, professional educational training, offices, and com-
See RESEARCH on page D4
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