​Oceanside’s Emerging Issues Update: March 3, 2016

A quick overview of what was covered in the Oceanside Chamber’s March 2016 Emerging Issues Committee Meeting.

By Amber Ter-Vrugt

Jennings – US Chamber – priorities for 2016!
The Transpacific Partnership, a free trade agreement with 11 other nations along the Pacific Rim, is the #1 priority for the US chamber! This will open up trade markets for the US that never existed before.
Other priorities include regulatory reform, tax reform, and combatting harmful legislation.
Regulatory Onslaught…63 federal agencies have 3,305 regulations at various stages of implementation
Two major regulatory rules that are coming down the pike…

1. The Overtime Rule increases the minimum salary threshold for exempt employees from $23,660 to $50,440… so basically a 113% increase, or you have to make those employees hourly employees. California is a little different; our baseline is a little higher than the Federal average, but this rule would still have a huge impact on businesses with full-time employees that make less than $50K!!
2. The Fiduciary Rule which will come on line in spring 2016 was intended to help keep the “bad-actors” out of the financial planning business, but it basically makes it tougher for investment advisors to do their job and opens up more opportunities for litigation which helps no one.