Valley Industry & Commerce Association | |
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- Capri Maddox Joins VICA's DEI Committee
- VICA Supports AB 52- Manufacturing Equipment Tax Credit
- VICA Opposes ACA 1 - Lower Voter Threshold to Increase Taxes
- VICA Opposes AB 1690 - No to State Run Healthcare
- Medicaid Redeterminations and Impacts on Employers
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Quick Jump - Register to Attend!
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“As a newly elected Supervisor, I came into office with a clear mandate to make LA County the equitable, sustainable, and safe place we all know it can be. We have a lot of work ahead, and a responsibility to deliver meaningful results for our communities." | |
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Supervisor Lindsey Horvath
Statement on First 100 Days as County Supervisor
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Capri Maddox Joins VICA's DEI Committee Meeting | |
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On Wednesday, VICA;s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee welcomed Capri Maddox, the Executive Director & General Manager of the Los Angeles Civil + Human Rights and Equity Department.
Maddox joined VICA members to discuss the department's city-wide programs designed to increase equity and representation throughout Los Angeles, including LA Civil Right's RENEW Task Force. The Racial Equity and Newly Empowered Workplaces (RENEW) was launched in 2020 and consists of a broad coalition of company representatives committed to rooting out structural racism in our business community.
Maddox also discussed the Los Angeles Reforms for Equity and Public Acknowledgements of Institutional Racism (LA REPAIR) which funds LA's first participatory budget pilot program. This program collects ideas from local communities to help address long-standing issues stemming from discrimination, and distributes a roughly $8.5 million budget to communities most in need to start repairing these communities.
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VICA Supports AB 52 - Manufacturing Equipment Tax Credit | |
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VICA supports Assembly Bill 52 (Grayson), which expands investment and production in California by supporting a tax credit for purchasing manufacturing and research and development (R&D) equipment.
AB 52 will incentivize long-term investments and generate growth in the manufacturing industry in California by providing qualified entities a state tax credit equal to what they pay in local sales taxes for qualified manufacturing equipment.
AB 52 will help local manufacturers, which operate on razor-thin margins, compete in the domestic and global markets. That competitive ability will lead to growth in innovation, production of a wide range of goods, and bolster California's economy.
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VICA Opposes ACA 1 - Lowing Voter Threshold to Increase Local Taxes | |
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VICA opposes ACA 1 (Aguiar-Curry), which would authorize a local government to impose, extend or increase a sales and use tax for the purposes of funding the construction and replacement of public infrastructure and permanent and supportive housing by a 55% majority vote.
Improving infrastructure and increasing housing availability is important, but higher taxes on Californians work against making the state more affordable.
ACA 1 promotes a flawed and regressive tax structure, with California being the only state that allows a local add-on parcel tax and would expand the number of parcel taxes throughout the state. No oversight has been provided to establish a comprehensive structure, and these taxes are often regressive, disregarding a taxpayer's ability to pay.
ACA 1 could increase housing costs and the cost of living for businesses and families. California should retain a two-thirds majority threshold for all proposals that will have a major economic impact on local communities.
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VICA Opposes AB 1690 - Say No to a State-Run Healthcare System | |
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VICA opposes AB 1690 (Kalra), which intends to guarantee healthcare for all Californians through a comprehensive universal single-payer healthcare program.
First introduced as AB 1400 (Kalra) in 2022, an analysis estimated that a single-payer system would cost between $314 billion and $391 billion annually. For reference, the governor's 2023-24 budget proposal, including special funding, is under $300 billion in spending.
A recent survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 70% of Californians believe they pay "much more" state and local taxes than they should; a single-payer health system will only increase this tax burden and contribute to the flight of Californians leaving the state while having destructive impacts on the state's healthcare industry and patients.
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Medicaid Redeterminations and Impacts on Employers | |
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Anthem Blue Cross President Beth Andersen has released an editorial regarding Medi-Cal renewals and impacts on California employers, including maintaining employees' healthcare coverage.
Anthem Blue Cross has created an Employer Toolkit to help employers communicate this important change to their employees. Employees can be directed to several resources, including Anthem.com/ca/StayCovered or Covered California, which allows individuals to shop for, compare, and purchase qualified health insurance plans with tax credits or subsidies based on income.
To read the full editorial, you can click here.
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VICA After Dark: Supervisor Lindsey Horvath
May 3 | 5:30 PM
Burbank Airport Marriott
Supervisor Lindsey Horvath was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in the fall of 2022 and assumed office on December 5, 2022. Sher previously served as a City Councilmember and the longest consecutively serving Mayor for the City of West Hollywood. Horvath’s career has been defined by tackling the hardest problems, building diverse coalitions, and delivering results for her community.
VICA thanks our host and Presenting Sponsor Burbank Airport Marriott and presenting sponsor EKA.
If you are interested in sponsoring this event, please contact yoko@vica.com as soon as possible to secure your sponsorship.
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San Fernando Valley Business Hall of Fame
June 8 | 5:30 PM
The Garland
Join VICA members, business leaders and officeholders as we honor members of our community during a garden reception, program, dinner and dessert.
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If you are interested in attending and want to register, email Cathy at cathy@vica.com or click the button below. | |
If you are interested in sponsoring this event, please email Yoko at yoko@vica.com. For more information on sponsorships, click the button below. | |
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Land Use Committee
Tuesday, April 11
8:30 - 10:30 AM
Hosted by The Garland
RSVP
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Aviation Committee
Tuesday, April 18
Noon - 1:30
Hosted by Aerolease-Aeroplex Group
RSVP
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Government Affairs Committee
Wednesday, April 19
Noon - 2:00
At the VICA Office
RSVP
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LA City Council District 6 Election
Community relations manager Imelda Padilla is the leader Wednesday in the special election to fill the Los Angeles City Council seat vacated by Nury Martinez, and the race for second is tight between Marisa Alcaraz, Rose Grigoryan, and Marco Santana. If no candidate receives a majority, there will be a runoff between the top two in the election, with the deadline being June 27. The next update to the vote count is scheduled to be announced Friday afternoon.
County Hospital Workers Get Benefits
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors agreed that contracted workers at four county hospitals will be provided fully-paid healthcare benefits. Once changes to their contracts are completed, the sweeping action will provide 100% employer-paid healthcare insurance for about 2,000 janitorial, environmental, and food service workers at hospitals owned and operated by the county.
LA Housing Authority has Data Posted
HACLA, one of the nation's largest public housing authorities, provides affordable housing to more than 83,000 households in its Public Housing and Section 8 rental assistance programs, had massive troves of data seized by hackers and posted on the dark website, LockBite, where all the data was uploaded. Whether personally identifiable information was included must be clear, but the site had gone down by last Friday afternoon. The housing agency has not responded about whether a ransom was paid and what steps it took to notify and protect those whose information may have been exposed.
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New IRS Leader Promises Faster Filing
IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel delivered a tax-season pledge that the agency will use an $80 billion infusion of cash to become faster, more tech-savvy and provide "real-world improvements" to taxpayers. Werefel said he would release a strategic operating plan later this week laying out how the agency will use money approved in last year's Inflation Reduction Act. Some improvements include hiring more people to end long call wait times, additional locations for IRS staff, and expanding online accounts.
LA County Keeps Certain COVID Rules
As the state officially eased many COVID-era masking rules, LA County will retain its vaccine requirement and mask mandate for all health workers when they are around patients. Visitors and patients will no longer be required to wear a mask. The county's rules are more restrictive than other parts of the state. The California Department of Public Health ended the statewide mask requirement in healthcare and other indoor settings.
Public School Enrollment Declines
Enrollment at California public schools has declined this academic year without any recovery from the steep drops seen during the pandemic - although the decrease has slowed. Enrollment from 2022-23 fell by 40,000 students, and this year's percentage decline is higher than the five years before the pandemic. The latest numbers show that "student enrollment is beginning to stabilize with increased enrollment in kindergarten, grades seven, and eleventh. But enrollment was lower than last year for nine of the 13-grade levels.
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Member Messages
Get Your Message in VICA Weekly!
VICA members can promote their business, events and news in VICA Weekly. Member messages are available for $50 per week or $175 for four weeks. Messages are text-based and may not contain more than 70 words. A logo may be added for an additional $5 per week. For more information or to schedule your member message, contact yoko@vica.com or call (818) 817-0545.
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ABOUT VICA
Presenting the business perspective on behalf of employers in the
San Fernando Valley cities of Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale, Calabasas,
Hidden Hills, San Fernando and Santa Clarita.
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