The making of a Nanny State

A couple of legislations enacted by the State of California caught my eye in a year-end legislative review:

Assembly Bill No. 649 - "horse jockey bill" - decrees that since "professional jockeys are vital to the horse racing industry and the work they perform is very dangerous", their riding fee that jockeys earn should be increased by at least the same rate by which the state minimum wage is increased.

Senate Bill No. 250 - "gift card bill" - stipulates that onwards of January 1, 2008, the issuers of gift cards will be forced to redeem the remaining cash value on gift cards, if it is less than $20.

I offer no quarrel if my jockey friends want a bit more to make ends meet, or about the convenience of encashing gift cards instead of carrying them around waiting for the right opportunity to use them. But there is also such a thing as a statutory overreach, no?