Today on the Senate Floor, Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones (R-San Diego) raised concerns about Assembly Bill 610, which adds new exemptions to California’s $20-an-hour minimum wage hike for fast food chains. Yesterday, media reports raised questions about Panera Bread’s exemption from the law, indicating the exemption is linked to their franchise owner’s connections and campaign contributions to Governor Newsom. Click here to see Leader Jones’s remarks on the Senate Floor.
“Media outlets across the country are now calling California a ‘Pay to Play’ state, said Leader Joness. “Put simply, campaign contributions should not buy you carve-outs in legislation. That’s crony capitalism. It’s corrupt and unacceptable.”
On the Senate Floor, Leader Jones made a motion to move AB 610 to the inactive file, emphasizing the need to reject any possibility that campaign contributions are linked to legislative carve-outs. Click here for the vote record on the motion and here for the vote record on AB 610.
“We need to send a message that the Senate will not condone any ‘Pay to Play’ actions or perceptions, period,” continued Leader Jones. “At this point, the cleanest path forward is to scrap AB 1228 entirely and start from scratch. At the very least, we should hold on moving this bill forward until there can be a thorough investigation into the allegations at hand. Unfortunately, my motion to hold the bill and move this bill to the inactive file was rejected by the Democrat majority. Their compliance in the governor’s corruption is deeply troubling.”
Jones and all Senate Republicans did not support AB 610 on the floor today. All Senate Republicans opposed the measure, Assembly Bill 1228, which led to this minimum wage hike and the exemption for Panera Bread in 2023. In a further effort to stop the assault on California employers, Sen. Brian Dahle (R-Bieber) even made a formal request to the governor to veto the legislation.