Posted on 04/28/2014 10:54:38 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The world’s leading automotive maker will follow the lead of its competitors and other large businesses, and leave California for better business climates elsewhere. Toyota had its US headquarters in Torrance for more than three decades, but now nearly 5,000 jobs will shift to Texas:
Toyota Motor Corp. plans to move large numbers of jobs from its sales and marketing headquarters in Torrance to suburban Dallas, according to a person familiar with the automaker’s plans. …
The automaker won’t be the first big company Texas has poached from California.
Occidental Petroleum Corp. said in February that it was relocating from Los Angeles to Houston, making it one of around 60 companies that have moved to Texas since July 2012, according to Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Perry last month visited the California to recruit companies. The group Americans for Economic Freedom also recently launched a $300,000 advertising campaign in which Perry contends 50 California companies have plans to expand or relocate in Texas because it offers a better business climate.
Like these other companies, Toyota could also save money in an environment of lower business taxes, real estate prices and cost of living.
Torrance mayor Frank Scotto said he was blindsided by the decision, although he knew Toyota planned a major announcement for today. KCAL-9 reported on the move last night:
Scotto also told the LA Times that the move made sense. Higher workers-comp and liability requirements in California, not to mention higher taxes, make California an unattractive destination for business creation and expansion. It’s gotten so bad that the money saved in those areas can pay for a massive move of a national headquarters — and more and more companies are beginning to see the cost benefits of such a move out of the Golden State.
The move makes sense in other ways, the LA Times points out. It puts the national headquarters much closer to the actual production facilities, but it also makes it easier to travel out to the major locations within the US, thanks to the hub-and-spoke air system the US uses and the easy access to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. Neither of those would be enough to justify the massive expense of this relocation on its own, though. Toyota wants to shake itself loose from California’s high-tax, low-service environment and put its trust in smaller-footprint government in Texas. The question isn’t so much why as it is what took them so long.
Californians had better wake up to the realities of interstate competition, and begin to reform their policies to keep what jobs they have left. High-speed rail boondoggles aren’t going to save the Golden State — they may well contribute to sinking it.
Jerry Brown says ‘good riddance’
Don’t need no stinkin businesses in CA.
Ah, watching Mexi-Taxa-fornia collapse is such pleasure.
Someday they’ll learn
Good for Texas and good for Toyota!(I’m a native Californian.) You folks should see our state. It is really “Diverse” with all the disaster that that implies.
We truly ARE becoming a Nation divided - between PRODUCERS and FREELOADERS.
I don’t have the answer, other than Conservatism in its most pure, basic form. Works every time it’s tried!
I’ve read that when Cali’s “Cap & Tax” kicks into high gear in the out years, it will really be a killer for any large business.
What we are seeing is the California literally taxing companies out of business. Sure the businesses are moving to stay in business, but they are leaving Calfornia in droves taking thousands upon thousands of jobs with them.
Boeing is doing the same. They are moving most of their facilities out of Seattle, WA to less expensive states to conduct business.
Before Texans celebrate the new business, it will be wise to ask the question -— what are the VOTING HABITS of these people moving in from California?
Texas in the past couple of years has gotten a fair number of small to mid size business to move their headquarters to Texas.
An interesting side impact has been happening recently.
In many Californicator areas where good houses are in high demand, Texans have been the #1 group of buyers or in the top group of buyers. They pay cash and live here for a few months per year. They still run their businesses out of and from Texas. Some were Californians before Texas and some like our areas particuliarily in the summer and fall.
You and me, brother. I left California 16 years ago, and always knew that if I ever had to return to the States, I would make home in Texas.
“Before Texans celebrate the new business, it will be wise to ask the question -— what are the VOTING HABITS of these people moving in from California?”
Texas needs to establish re-education camps or insist that relocators hire only long time Texas residents.
About five years ago, my neighbor worked at Toyota and they moved most of them to Nashville.
Now I guess the rest are off to TX.
They never learn. Liberalism is a mental disease.
Texas, especially Austin, is filled with ex-CA types with the Obama bumperstickers who still spout off leftist crap even though they had to leave the Socialist State of California to keep working.
They NEVER learn.
I have and idea. We the White people need to give Ca to the Hispanics and declare ourselves the minority, (coming soon anyway) and demand that all the brown people support us and not make us obey the laws we don't like.
We will be speaking the language they don't, (english) and demand that they pay us for every kid we can make.
And if they object we will just call them racists.
I think you’re overly optimistic.......They’ll likely NEVER learn. They’re whole “machine” is based on transfer of responsibility and scapegoating. As Kalifornia descends into the bowels of Heck, the rhetoric of blaming the rich, blaming the corporations, blaming whitey will just escalate until the whole stinking crap pile just incinerates itself........But then, some people tell me I’m slightly negative.........
Look for the NTSB to find all 2015 Toyotas have new mysterious ghost acceleration issues and need immediate recall followed by fines.
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