By Dave Everett | I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I hear Sacramento insiders joke that Governor Jerry Brown is the most moderate Democrat in the State Capitol. But the joke goes to show how far left-leaning this current crop of Democrats in the California State Senate and Assembly actually are. So when the local Long Beach Assemblywoman, Bonnie Lowenthal, is told by her fellow Democrats that they won’t even hold a hearing on her idea for a law–an idea that has been identified as a “job killer” by business organizations concerned about the California economy–it is worth noting.

Last week, strong opposition from the California Chamber of Commerce, the Associated Builders and Contractors, her hometown Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, and other business groups stopped Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal’s “job killer” AB1164 on the Assembly Floor. The bill failed to have enough support, even among Democrats, to garner a vote of the full Assembly. A coalition of 59 business groups and local chambers of commerce joined together to oppose the bill.

The coalition sent a floor alert to members of the Assembly on January 27, voicing strong and unified opposition to the measure. As a result, the Assembly placed the bill on the inactive file, thus causing the legislation to miss the January 31 deadline for bills to pass their house of origin.

The bill, AB 1164, allowed an employee who claims a wage violation to assert a lien on an employer’s personal property before any trial or administrative hearing has been held to determine if any wages are actually owed by the employer.

At the time of filing the lien, the employee would have no burden to provide any actual evidence that the employer violated any wage-and-hour law. California already has some of the most onerous wage- and-hour laws in the country and Bonnie Lowenthal’s bill would have further eroded the state’s business climate. Despite the fact that the third party homeowner had absolutely no control over the employee’s work or the wages he/she was paid, that homeowner could have his/her property leveraged for unpaid wages of the company’s employees.

It is patently unfair to hold an innocent third party liable for the alleged, unproven acts of another. AB1164 is an anchor on our economy and would cripple California businesses. The fact that Bonnie Lowenthal is coming up with ways to kill jobs in this difficult economy – it is just one more reason why she should not be elected as Long Beach’s next Mayor in April 2014.

Dave Everett is the Government Affairs Director for the Associated Builders and Contractors in Southern California