eBay hosted tech companies from Silicon Valley to discuss legislative issues for the coming year. On hand was California lawmaker Assemblymember Evan Low, who heads the California Assembly Business and Profession Committee, which oversees all licensed professions in California.
Tech companies, once the darlings of politicians worldwide, have come under fire on a range of issues from privacy, taxes, worker treatment and wages.
eBay hosted the event in conjunction with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a public policy trade association that lobbies on behalf of member companies that “collectively provide nearly one of every three private sector jobs in Silicon Valley and contribute more than $3 trillion to the worldwide economy.” Among its missions is to lobby on tax policy, which it describes as follows:
“The Silicon Valley Leadership Group has a strong tradition of finding regional, state and federal bi-partisan policy solutions which recognize the innovation economy by bringing California and the U.S. tax codes up to date. Our top priorities are promoting tax policies that are competitive globally and with other states and creating level playing fields for business sales and use and property taxes.”
Announcement follows:
eBay Hosts Roundtable With Silicon Valley Tech Leaders
eBay’s Government Relations team partnered with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG) to host a roundtable at our headquarters that included California State Assemblymember Evan Low, who serves the 28th Assembly District. SVLG is a local trade association that represents over 375 Silicon Valley member companies, including eBay, on relevant public policy issues in Silicon Valley.
eBay’s VP of Global Government Relations and Public Policy Cathy Foster attended the event and SVLG’s President Carl Guardino moderated the roundtable discussion. Nearly 20 representatives from major tech companies in the Bay Area also attended. This was a great opportunity to learn about the California State Legislature’s 2019 priorities and to discuss major legislative issues and concerns impacting the technology industry.
Assemblymember Low is the chairman of the CA Assembly Business and Profession Committee which oversees all licensed professions in California and provides oversight of the CA Department of Consumer Affairs. Low is also a co-chair of the bipartisan California Legislative Technology and Innovation Caucus, which focuses on ensuring California remains the global leader in technology and innovation while supporting legislation that creates jobs and uses technology to improve the lives of people.
eBay would like to thank Assemblymember Evan Low for taking the time to visit our headquarters and we look forward to continuing these productive conversations with him, his colleagues, and other tech companies in the Bay Area.
SOURCE: eBay Main Street Announcement
Why was Ebay included in this at all let alone as the host? This summit was supposed to be for Tech Companies and Ebay has proven over and over this year that they do not qualify as one.
They discuss wanting to level the playing field on wages and taxes yet Ebay pays some of the lowest wages around and tend to hire more HB1 Visa workers than qualified American workers, so if they are so worried about wages and property taxes let them move their offices to India where they seem to be farming most of their programming out to. Then they can experience what it is like to live on the wages that are paid over there and live the full experience of what they encourage by outsourcing their work.
California is so over-regulated it’s astounding. A lot of companies leave because of the red tape, the high cost and the lawsuit environment. Silicon Valley is now the place that replaces all of it’s skilled professionals with H1-B guest workers who got their diploma in a tent and will work for $10 an hour. Speaking with lobbyists over lunch will probably just result in 400 new bills being written and higher taxes. I can’t believe E Bay hasn’t moved to Hong Kong yet.