In 2019, California businesses faced nearly 400,000 regulations, almost three times as many as the average state. Today that number is almost certainly higher, perhaps much higher, as new regulations are added every year and few, if any, are retired. As California businesses increasingly relocate to other states, business owners cite regulatory burdens as one of the most important reasons why they leave.

The most damaging regulations are those that are implemented largely for political reasons, either passed as payoffs to important political supporters or including carve-outs so political supporters are exempted from regulations.

One example came to light last week when Bloomberg broke a story about California’s 2023 Assembly Bill (AB) 1228, which requires that fast-food franchisees pay a minimum wage of $20 per hour, but which provides a peculiar, one-off exemption to fast-food restaurants that include an onsite bakery and that sell bread as a stand-alone item. AB 1228 replaced a much more onerous fast-food regulation, AB 257, which was signed into law in 2022 and placed virtually all aspects of labor relations within fas- food outlets under the purview of a politically appointed regulatory council.

The political angle reported by Bloomberg is that AB 1228’s bakery exemption was to have included the fast-food restaurant Panera Bread. Billionaire Greg Flynn, a significant political donor to Gavin Newsom, owns 24 Panera franchises in California.

Flynn’s donations to Newsom include........

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