In the News

Small businesses in San Joaquin County and the rest of California remain vulnerable to thousands of dollars in penalty and legal fees for violating disability access rules since Gov. Brown’s recent veto of an Americans with Disabilities Act reform bill.

“It’s unbelievable,” Stockton business owner Jerry Brannon said over the news. “We need some help … so we can stop the extortion of money from small business.”

Senate Bill 251, authored by Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, was among nine bills targeted by Brown because they provided state tax credits.

It’s understandable if Sen. Richard Roth feels the cold shoulder these days from Gov. Jerry Brown.

In recent weeks, the governor has vetoed three bills authored by, and important to, the Riverside Democrat. One would have restored vehicle license fees to four Riverside County cities, another would have provided money for more Inland judges and the third would have given small businesses tax credits to enhance their access for disabled customers.

In veto messages, Brown, a Democrat, wrote that the vehicle license fee bill would have been a drain on the state’s general fund. He said a more system-wide approach is needed to apportion judges and that California’s budget couldn’t afford tax credit bills like the one for disability access.

Roth, a retired Air Force general elected in 2012, said he learned Brown vetoed his judgeship bill, SB 229, through the media. He said he was disappointed he didn’t have the chance to talk about the veto with the governor’s staff.

Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill by State Sen. Richard Roth, a Riverside Democrat, that would have given small business owners tax credits for costs of bringing their businesses up to code with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The bill, SB 251, provided 10 percent of access-compliance expenditures up to $10,250 annually for defined small businesses.

Brown said in his Oct. 10 veto statement that he could not support providing additional tax credits against a state budget that he called “precariously balanced due to unexpected costs and the provision of new services.”

The bill was one of nine that carried tax credits which the governor vetoed over the weekend.

Roth said in a statement Monday, Oct. 12 that he was “baffled” by the initial voice mail Saturday from Brown’s office that the bill, SB 251, would be vetoed and “confused” by the governor’s statement.

Zombies and insects and robots, oh, my. The arts and sciences came alive Thursday during the 2015 Long Night of Arts & Innovation, complete with an exotic stick-and-leaf bug, zombie CPR dummies and even a Formula race car.

Zombies were out in force in downtown Riverside on Thursday.

But on the 2015 Long Night of Arts & Innovation, so were exotic insects, robotic arms, jazz musicians and Edgar Allan Poe.

They were all part of a giant science and art fair brought together on the Main Street pedestrian mall by the city, community organizations, businesses, and teachers and students from universities, colleges and schools.