GONZALEZ-FLETCHER ADDS $20 MILLION TO BUDGET TO PARTIALLY OFFSET AB 5 IMPACTS ON NONPROFIT ARTS GROUPS, BUT FALLS FAR SHORT OF HELP NEEDED

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version Share this
By Miriam Raftery
 
March 7, 2020 (Sacramento)-- Musicians, artists and nonprofit arts groups are among the hardest hit by AB 5, the new law authored by Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher (D-San Diego) requiring that many freelancers be reclassified as employees – a prohibitively costly mandate for many small nonprofits. Now Gonzalez-Fletcher is offering some help, though it amounts to a Bandaid approach to the wounds inflicted on the arts and music industries by the new law.
 
Last month, Gonzalez-Fletcher  along with Assemblymember Christy Smith (D-Santa Clarita) asked for $20 million to be added to the state budget for the California Arts Council to help small community nonprofit arts groups comply with AB 5, but only in the first year. But there is no guarantee of funding for applicants, nor any help to meet ongoing enormous costs of complying in future years--such as paying unemployment insurance, workman’s compensation and other annual costs for all employees, as well as added payroll deduction and accounting costs. 
 
Moreover, the measure only helps nonprofits able to win grants and show good-faith effort to comply with AB 5. Even then, the measure offers no help to meet ongoing high costs, nor does it offer any assistance to for-profit companies nor to individual artists or musicians losing work due to the new law.
Oblivious to those flaws, Gonzalez-Fletcher states, “This additional funding for small, non-profit arts organizations will ensure we can more quickly transition to an economy that treats all workers fairly and with dignity.”
 
AB 5 has had devastating impacts on the arts and music industries. The Los Angeles Times heard from over 120 artists, musicians, nonprofit arts groups and others in the arts field on how AB 5 has negatively impacted them, and published many of their stories. Some, such as a writers’ workshop organization, have already been forced to close down due to the unaffordable costs the bill would impose. Others including opera and theater groups fear they may soon have to close their doors.
 
Another casualty is the Lake Tahoe Music Festival, which announced it is ending the 40-year festival due to AB 5.  
 
Organizers stated, “New CA employment law AB-5 requirements add to the challenge of meeting our financial goals and create the final stressor on our small non-profit organization. For several years we have experienced the same slowly eroding philanthropic support of cultural life faced by other small arts organizations in our state. We now join many who also face increased uncertainty regarding employment costs and infrastructure needs associated with AB-5. So we will bring our festival to a close with pride in our long-time contribution to community life in North Tahoe and Truckee.
 
Many musicians, artists and nonprofits have asked Gonzalez-Fletcher to exempt their categories from AB 5 requirements, as was done for many other categories such as doctors and attorneys.  

Error message

Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.