Posted on 08/10/2008 10:19:56 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
A new survey of corporate executives considering relocating their firms provides fresh reasons to worry about California's economy. The Development Counsellors International survey found CEOs ranked California dead-last in attractiveness among the 50 states because of its high taxes and business-hobbling regulations.
California's reputation is likely to grow even worse in the next few weeks when a 2008-09 state budget is finally adopted, given the probability it will raise taxes. But what is truly depressing to contemplate is what happens come January 2011, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger departs and is likely to be replaced by a Democrat.
We have griped about Schwarzenegger on several fronts of late. Yet at least he understands that helping business is in everyone's interest, because a healthy economy doesn't just mean good jobs but plenty of revenue for the state government.
This basic truth doesn't register with Democratic lawmakers, who recently passed bills forcing employers to offer acupuncture coverage in their health plans, micromanaging meal times for private employees, increasing regulation of medical assistants and adding new costs to managed-care programs.
Schwarzenegger vetoed all these measures on Aug. 1. Someday soon, we may have a governor inclined to go along with these assaults on business.
So our dead-last ranking among CEOs looks secure. As for state revenue, what's now a persistent headache could soon become a migraine.
1. Texas
2. North Carolina
3. Georgia
48. Michigan
49. New York
50. California
Source: Development Counsellors International
Liberals on $pending steroids will still be running things after aRnie. Oh joy.
There really are two Americas.
In the worst case scenario we get Jerry Moonbeam Brown as governor again.
Deja Vu .. Moonbeam ,, wow.
what is the half-life of a moonbeam anyway?
California is finished. Entire areas of it are nothing but third-world toilets over-run by and mismanaged by illegals. California used to be paradise, but now it is pretty much just an extension of Mexico; to wit: f***ed up. I was born and raised in California, and I left for good in the late 1970s when I was 28. I saw what was in store for the state then, and decided to get out. I have friends and relatives who have been fkeeing the place in droves over the last few years: They all say it is beyond hope.
This is the issue. The Dem legislature.
And, as much as I disrespect Arnie for his liberal facets, I know that if, for example Gavin Newsom ever became governor, he and the legislature would spend and regulate the Golden State into oblivion in a fortnight.
It can't get worse, in fact it will only get better. Replacing a Republican who governs like a Democrat with a Democrat who governs like a Democrat will allow Republican legislators to unite in opposition and speak out against every hair-brained socialist scheme - which they aren't doing with Arnold now.
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha . . . . . . . . Dumbest statement I've read . . . . recently!! In Mexifornia, it makes no difference whether the gov. has an "R" or a "D" after his name - neither type can or will set a budget that the Mexifornians can/will live within. The state legislature is waaaayyyyy out of control pandering to EVERY whack job, minority, special interest group, etc., at the expense of the citizens AND the corporations.
The state's political elites are so busy pandering to illegals and nutjobs across the spectrum, they don't have time to worry about who's minding the store!!! The worst part of this mess is that it will be the taxpayers in the rest of the states who will have to pay off Mexifornia's debt when they finally declare bankruptcy. We didn't make this mess, but we'll have to pay for it.
Thanks, Mexifornia - for NOTHING!!!
Have you visited he normal parts of the state? Outside Los Angeles and San Francisco? Yes, the Arnold and his liberal Democrat allies are doing great damage, but California is still a wonderful, beautiful place to live in most regions. So try and cool the hyperbole please.
The same things are happening all across this country.
Is the USA finished?
Is it beyond hope?
If California looked bad enough in the seventies for you to leave, what can you do now?
The US is in worse shape now than California was in the seventies.
Shall we work to save it or leave?
Shhhhh, it's crowded enough here as it is...
:>)
Exactly McCains point, we are loosing jobs overseas because we are taxing and regulating our own jobs out of existance. This is not just a California problem, it is a National problem.
Uhhhhh, Duh. Good luck Ca.
Meanwhile, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho and Utah continue to prosper, as former California headquarters relocate there from a wide spectrum of business enterprises. Oregon and Washington State, not so much, as they suffer from earlier stages of the same nanny-state syndrome that has paralyzed California.
“Cascadia” should really break off and become a separate country. But the founding of “Azlatan” may supersede that.
They actually call the relocation adversion “ABC” - anywhere but California. We have been strangled by environmental regulations. Each California resources agency is reaching further and further into land use regulation. The Fish and Game is deep into controlling water use and dismantling long held private property rights in water use through regulations for flows for salmon and other fish. The Water Quality folks are reaching into land use to control sediment and temperatiure producing activities that affect salmon habitat.
The very worst is going to be the Global Warming or Climate Change regulations about to come down. In addition to forcing smart growth (infill and concentration of development into cities,) Jerry Brown has a whole new nightmare he is poised to enforce through CEQA - California Environmental Quality Act analysis. At the urging of radical environmentalists, he has demanded that the CEQA analysis on a water bottling plant include not only the impact of the construction of the facility, not only the impact of trucks in the operating of the facility, but the amount of electricity the facility will use and how that effects the utility. He also wants an analysis of the environmental impact of the product itself and how it effects the waste stream and whether people throw plastic bottles in the ocean hundreds of miles away and how that affects marine life. He wants government to judge the societal costs of a product!
This would mean, if a farner builds a hay barn, planning would have to look at the pesticide, fertilizer and gas used to produce the hay and transport it to the buyer dairy. It would also have to look at the emissions of the cows and how their manure was handled. Heck, it might have to look at the human waste and energy streams if they bought the milk. This has got to be a violation of the Interstate Commerce clause.
The California environmentalists have figured out how to regulate every aspect of the stream of commerce. Thie costs in anlysis and bureaucracy are astronomical. In the timber industry, the cost of doing business in California and the time all this anlysis takes is about 100 times what it is in Oregon.
Hmmm, "Juan De Fuca" is colliding with North America - looks like an omen for McCain pandering to illegals and compromising with the Rats.
Works for me :)
In our travels, we are struck by the number of X Californian’s we meet. A lot say the same thing..we left because of taxes, schools, property values..low wages etc.
We left because we could live state income tax free elsewhere. We have met some who have a home there, but are residents outside CA. (Tax refugees).
I hope the Feinstein runs as governor. She deserves the problems that are coming with Rats running the place.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.