California: Golden State has tarnish. Business having seconds thoughts abot staying.

Orange County Register ^ | December 27, 2002

[John Jorsett]

For Anthony A. Nobles, this should be the best of times.

The chief executive officer of Sutura Inc., which makes a remote-suturing medical device, is about to close on a $60 million merger that will allow the company to expand its U.S. sales force.

[xrp]

Pulaski believes paid family leave and other new laws will not push companies out but rather improve business.

"When employers care about their people and their personal lives, you get the best productivity," he says.

Pulaski is pretty delusional. Businesses employ people to WORK (ie: produce) not to have families.

[Eala]

Pulaski believes paid family leave and other new laws will not push companies out but rather improve business.
"When employers care about their people and their personal lives, you get the best productivity," he says.

What an idiot, or liar! These laws won't do a bit to make "employers care about their people and their personal lives."

[balrog666]

Pulaski believes paid family leave and other new laws will not push companies out but rather improve business.

Then Pulaski is a fool.

[Centurion2000]

Nobles plans to stay put for now, a decision based in part on the cost and logistics of running plants in two states and partly "because I love Fountain Valley." Like many local business owners, he says he loves the climate, but he also likes the sense of community in Fountain Valley, where he lives.

Hope he LOVES fountain valley, because it's going to be the reason that he loses his shirt and his business in the future.

[zoyd]

Pulaski believes paid family leave and other new laws will not push companies out but rather improve business. "When employers care about their people and their personal lives, you get the best productivity," he says.

It's thinking like this that got us into trouble in the first place.

[tubebender]

But Art Pulaski, spokesman for the California Federation of LaborThugs, Cheats and Thiefs, cites the Forbes poll as evidence that things aren't as bad as business executives say.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for posting this!

calgov2002:

calgov2002: for old calgov2002 articles. 

calgov2002: for new calgov2002 articles. 

Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register

[OldFriend]

One thing is for sure, he'd best not consider New York or New Jersey for his business.

[rudypoot]

"But Art Pulaski, spokesman for the California Federation of Labor, cites the Forbes poll as evidence that things aren't as bad as business executives say." Who would you rather believe in this case? A government spokesman with a poll or the business executives?

[NathanR]

ExpressAir Delivery Systems, Costa Mesa

When the Legislature this year approved paid family leave, an ExpressAir employee walked into owner Bruce Ross' office asking to be paid for her recent maternity leave.

"I said it wasn't retroactive and doesn't take effect until 2004," Ross recalled. "She said she'd have to time her next pregnancy to take advantage of it. Everyone will take it. Why would they not?"

ExpressAir has specialized in same-day delivery of parcels and documents in Southern California for 12 years. Two years ago, the firm had 20 workers. Now it has five. Ross now contracts out most of the driving because of workers' comp rates that increased 36 percent in the past two years and will leap as much as 50 percent Jan. 1.

Ross did save $160 per truck when the state cut the vehicle license fee, but then it introduced a $1,700 user fee on commercial trucks.

After the Legislature restored overtime pay after eight hours in a day instead of after 40 hours in a week, Ross stopped allowing workers to take off for appointments or school events and make up the time later.

"It doesn't hurt me, it hurts my workers," he said.

(This is a from a different article in the same Register.)

[John Jorsett]

The employer isn't going to be the one paying the worker for the time off. Each worker is going to have a special tax deducted from his/her pay and put into some state fund, and that's where the money is going to come from on the payouts. It won't cost the employer directly (until the inevitable increase in costs due to abuse prompts the politicians to start requiring the employer to pick up the tab, for the sake of 'fairness'). There will of course be indirect costs of finding a temporary replacement, training them, and putting up with the lower productivity that a temp worker will bring.

[kellynla]

"second thoughts"? Heck we had third thoughts before the election...we are outahere and packing...between the media "just discovering the 35 billion dollar deficit" and the realization that business and millionaires pay the freight in this state, they all must be on a double dose of dumb pills...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Sad, but predictable!

[Grampa Dave]

Pulaski is a union thug who should be under mandatory drug testing with this Bravo Sierra remark:

Art Pulaski, spokesman for the California Federation of Labor, in a drug induced and socialist fit of mental delusion made the following remarks:

Pulaski believes paid family leave and other new laws will not push companies out but rather improve business.

"When employers care about their people and their personal lives, you get the best productivity," he says.

[Wolfstar]

Does this "special" tax come out of everyone's paycheck, including males and women who cannot have children? Or maybe the question should be asked this way: is this a thinly disguised income redistribution scheme? Whatever the answers, this sounds like another Leftist ponzi scheme boondoggle, where they rake in this "special" tax, use it for general purposes, and borrow to cover the costs of payouts. Oh, yeah, and the "special" tax initially goes into Gray Davis' version of Al Gore's lock-box.

[BfloGuy]

He notes companies are still moving here. For example, Kohl's Department Stores is opening 28 stores and bringing 2,800 jobs to Southern California next year.

When someone's reduced to touting retail stores as evidence of economic growth, then he's out of ammo.

Retail stores have to be located near their customers. And when there's no growth overall, then those 2800 new jobs replace the 2800 old jobs that will be lost.

New York State's got tons of retail stores.

No economic growth -- but tons of retail stores.

[NathanR]

When someone's reduced to touting retail stores as evidence of economic growth, then he's out of ammo.

That struck me too, when I read the article. The jobs that are going away are mostly manufacturing jobs. The new ones seem to be retail.

The thing I got from the article, is that companies who are here are staying, and if they are expanding, they are mostly expanding elsewhere. Those which might be coming here are going to Nevada or Arizona instead.

[BfloGuy]

The thing I got from the article, is that companies who are here are staying, and if they are expanding, they are mostly expanding elsewhere. Those which might be coming here are going to Nevada or Arizona instead.

Yeah, that's probably right.

But California's economy is so huge (and Davis knows this) that it will "coast" for many years just because there are so many talented and entrepreneurial people there.

New York State took decades and decades to kill its economy. The effort to kill the golden goose in New York started way back in the early 1900's and it took until the seventies to see the results.

Sometimes I wish that businesspeople weren't so darned pragmatic. By nature, they take problems (like state-imposed pregnancy leave or living-wage rules) and just try to figure out how to still make a profit.

The Libs count on this, indeed they build it into their calculations.

Ultimately, it doesn't work. Economics is becoming more and more like History and English as a discipline. It takes so long for the damage of a bad policy to become obvious, that the perpetrators are long gone and the causes forgotten.

Nice sounding proposals can win with ignorant citizens.