My company is burdened with a Federal, state, county and city EPA. When my company wanted to add employees the county planning and permitting made getting a permit to build on our property ruinously expensive. When we wanted to add parking per the original permits and environmental study, the county insisted on a new environmental impact study, which cost as much as the parking lot. (The property is a former cattle ranch, just acres of grass and the trees and bushes planted by the company.) When the company tried to build a mezzanine inside our three-story tall, but one story building to house 50 new employees, the county insisted on two wheelchair ramps, two sets of stairs and two elevators. Those cost more than the entire mezzanine and ate up 51% of the available space.
There was another company nearby in the Universities’ “Industrial” park. The university didn’t like an immoral defense company in “their” industrial park and offered the company the pre-real-estate-crash price for the land. (Our tax money.) The company grabbed it and ran, taking with them 350 jobs. BTW, both companies regularly hired graduates of the local two universities, not only as engineers, but as co-ops before they graduated.
The county has a tax on real property. So, the company has to pay a percentage of the value of any peice of equipment for as long as they own it. So, if we lose a contract and idle a piece of equipment, it goes into the dumpster. Then, we can no longer bid on work that machine would have done unless it’s clearly profitable enough to buy another machine.
My company builds spare parts for Army vehicles. Obama has scrapped half of the Army’s vehicles to provide spares for those fielded. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that in a few short years we won’t have any working Army vehicles. In the meantime, my company will fold much of it’s operations here next year.
Incredible story.
We tie our own hands, over regulate, then bitch about a level playing field.
If we’d dump half the EPA regs and become energy independent much of our trouble from economic to security would go away.
that’s fascinating and i appreciate the details. thanks for taking the time to relate this.
Might want to consider asking India how much it’d cost to have India claim the interior of your company building as sovereign Indian territory for the time your company will be housed there.
That way, US laws would not apply within your walls.
(Don’t know if it’d fly, but it might be worth considering.)