Another “One-Stop-Shop” Proposal to Improve the State’s Business Climate

Passing a bill that seemed as though enacted numerous times before, the Senate approved creation of a state “one-stop-shop” website on May 29 to provide persons with the information they need to start a business in California.

Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature and the governor’s office have advocated easing the hurdles to business start-ups for decades — at a minimum to help improve the state’s tarnished business climate.

Unanimously approved by the Senate, the one-page bill  – SB 1327 by Sen. Anthony Cannella, a Ceres Republican – would require the governor to create a website with information on the licensing, permitting and registration requirements of state agencies.

The site would also detail what applications must be submitted and provide digital copies of those applications.

Additionally, Cannella’s bill insists the site be “user-friendly” but fails to define what constitutes achieving that mandate.

The bill does not include city and county ordinances and other local requirements that might need to be met before a business can be established.

There is an interactive map at the website of the Governor’s existing Office of Business Development that provides some local information, however.

Cannella argues that small business owners, which represent more than 99 percent of the state’s employers, “often do not enjoy the benefits of unlimited capital and time and that a complex permitting and licensing system compounds the problem by adding another barrier to starting a small business.”

Also linked through the governor’s business development website is CalGOLD, a database that helps connect persons to agencies for permits and licenses.

Cannella says the site doesn’t have applications causing persons to visit multiple sites to obtain them.

For instance, Cannella says, someone wanting to start a construction company building single family homes, would need to contact 14 different state entities to get the necessary paperwork. 

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