Runaway Taxpayers (Like Yours Truly, Those Who Can Will Leave California Alert)

Flash Report ^ | 11/21/2008 | Jon Coupal

[goldstategop]

Seems that Governor Schwarzenegger wants to help out his old Hollywood friends with millions of dollars in tax breaks. He makes a case that lower taxes on film and television companies will reverse the trend of runaway production. Currently, California is losing out to at least 40 other states and Canada that are luring away production companies with very attractive tax incentives.

Five years ago, 66% of feature film production took place in California. Last year this was reduced to just 31% and the governor wants to help an industry that supports about 250,000 employees.

While a non-critical evaluation might make this tax cut seem a good idea -- encourage a major business to remain in our state and retain taxpaying employees -- it is coming from the same governor who is supporting tax increases on all Californians.

The average taxpayer looks at the lesson of runaway Hollywood production and draws an entirely different conclusion. They see just one more example, out of many, of high California taxes driving business, jobs and taxpayers out of state. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the state is suffering a massive net out-migration of citizens to other states. In most cases, those leaving also represent a loss of jobs and taxpayers who are vital to supporting state and local services.

The governor would be wise to reexamine a tax policy that creates some winners -- like his Hollywood friends -- and many losers, i.e., ordinary California taxpayers. If we can afford to give entertainment companies a tax break, how about a break for all businesses and taxpayers? If a tax break for production companies will keep them here, why not apply the same principle to all and not only encourage native businesses and taxpayers to remain in the state, but encourage new business and taxpaying citizens to relocate here?

Californians like to think of themselves as leading the way for the rest of the nation. When it comes to taxes, we do. Our state has the highest income and sales taxes in the nation. We have the highest business taxes west of the Mississippi. When it comes to providing a healthy climate for business, several studies show we are leading the way to the bottom.

A few months ago, I had the privilege of speaking to a group of Utah legislators. When the subject of the California Legislature came up, they began to chuckle. They explained that they credited California lawmakers, with their anti-business policies, as a significant asset in getting businesses to relocate to their state.

It is time for the Legislature and the governor to take off their blinders and recognize that California is rapidly losing the competition with other states. Higher taxes that Sacramento politicians are pushing would make us even less competitive. If they want to grow the economy, put people back to work and ultimately increase revenues to government they need to move in the opposite direction.

A tax cut would go a long way toward polishing the image of the now tarnished Golden State. The Hollywood example has already shown businesses will respond to an attractive tax climate. Why not go on the offensive and be among the first states to make businesses an offer they can't refuse? A tax cut for all would be the quickest way to lift us from the grip of recession.

[Cracker Jack]

You Kalifornians come to other states and try to implement the same policies you left CA for and screw up our states.

I am afraid you may have a point. My recent experience includes a discussion with a new Texas resident, recently arrived from California. He seemed pretty reasonable on the surface, but soon announced he was a liberal who had voted for Obama. We agreed on very little after that. Perhaps a residency requirement involving 5-10 years residence before a California transplant can vote in their new state would be a good idea. I am not sure whether to use a sarcasm tag here or not.

[Myrddin]

lol...I checked my handi dandy weather site...Looks like about 37 in your neck of the woods right now, going down to about 24 degrees tonight...I didn't think winter started until December?

Laugh away. While you were sitting inside surfing the web, I was out riding my motorcycle on perfectly dry streets with sunshine and blue skies. I have more room in my refrigerator too...all the cold drinks are just stacked in the garage. Drinking temperature with no refrigeration expense.

Supposed to be about 77, today here. A little chilly, but we'll do our best.

I don't bother with a coat above +45F. Shirt sleeves is just fine. We don't bother turning on the heater until the daytime high drops under 32. The waste heat from computers and the refrigerator is more than adequate to stay comfortable. If I really want to warm up the house quickly, a single log in the wood burning stove suffices. I have 10 cords stacked on the basketball court.

I'm a native Californian. I know exactly what I'm missing. The fine weather is a hollow compensation for all the bad stuff.

People like sailboats in Idaho too. That's Sand Point.

Waterfalls along the Snake River are nice too.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Thanks! Nevada is hardly free of rent-seekers and red tape, but it’s nothing like California’s primitive jungles - where small businesses go to be ambushed and devoured. ;)

[Mr. Jeeves]

Is the City Center edifice going to be completed or abandoned?

CityCenter will get done - with Dubai's money. Fontainebleau, too. But just about everything else is in danger of being abandoned, or at least postponed for several years.

Las Vegas isn't exactly dead - it's just readjusting to realistic revenue projections after several years in Speculative Fantasyland. ;)

[Doohickey]

My vote for dumbest statement on this thread. How would FR be different if it were based in, say, Kansas?

[Doohickey]

They’ve tried that, but neither prospective state wanted the Gay Area.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

I was born and raised in California. I got sick of it around 1991 and moved to Colorado.

I have since moved back to California.

Partly it is because I am clinically insane (after all I was born and raised in Cali) but part of it is because this place is already ruined and can't get much worse.

It was sad to see the same nonsense slowly grabbing hold of Colorado and turning it into another California.

[pbear8]

I have heard of the Fountainbleau but I know nothing else about it. Where is or will it be located?

[hinckley buzzard]

someone here in CA government is kicking around the idea of a “departure tax” or “exit tax”

I think they will find a little something called the Constitution standing in their way. Of course after a few years of Obamanoids ruling us that may no longer be a problem.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

I know a state that meets your requirements, but I’m not going to say which one.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

LOL. There are plenty of places in the Caribbean that have wonderful weather and the ocean. For instance, Cuba. That your supreme focus is on weather says all we need to know about you.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

I remember seeing Jack Welch on the television a few years ago and he said when you see cranes in the distance as far as you can see it’s time to run. Looks like he was correct.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

My vote for dumbest statement on this thread. How would FR be different if it were based in, say, Kansas?

No different hopefully. But one gets tired of some people's petty regionalist bigotries. There may come a day when all conservatives everywhere may need one another. There are still over 15 million conservatives in California.

Those who seek to divide us one from the other seek to weaken us.

[Axenolith]

Don’t forget, it metastatized to Northern Virginia too, right about the time I came out to CA. Just look to the results of the last election, there’s a host of founders probably metamorphosing soil from their RPMs...

[Axenolith]

When I told Ben that we were looking to relocate and were considering North Carolina he raised his glass and said: “Good. We’ll turn that red state blue in no time.”

You WALKED AWAY FROM THAT?!?! Man, you should have read him the riot act! As in "Hey DUMBASS, that's why you're leaving here in the first place!!!"

[Lancey Howard]

Ironically, as productive citizens continue to flee California the remaining population has a resulting greater percentage of bums, losers, and parasites - - you know, the Democrat “base”. ...Which in turn leads to more electoral victories for Democrats, and therefore even higher taxes. ...Leading to more flight by producers.

I see no way this cycle can be broken.

[Axenolith]

They’re stupid then, it would fail just like the higher “non CA car tax” that choked because it violates the interstate commerce clause...

[Alia]

lol! Very well put.

'Twas my own small business which forced me into the lion's den in California, and between the Clinton Admin and CA Dems, all but devoured me and mine. It is rough and tough here in NC; but rough and tough - different from CA.

It's just so, shall I say, stupid -- to read these liberal articles slamming the south when in fact life is no rose-bowl in any state; some states work harder at remaining free than others.

States like CA and Mass. make life far harder than needs be for humans and other living beings--just so that a political "ideology" can survive.

I'm quite sure the Endangered Species Act is merely the foil to hide the "real" endangered "ideology" afoot and running rampant through liberalism. It's really quite like the Southern phrase "might/could".

[MplsSteve]

Did you grow up in the San Fernando Valley?

I have a website that may interest you. Some of the pictures may bring back some old memories...

http://www.americassuburb.com

[dragnet2]

That your supreme focus is on weather says all we need to know about you.

You seem angry...LOL..

Ya see, I hate the cold, and extreme heat with high humidity makes me want to commit mass murder.

That's why I don't live in places like that. Been there done that in the service.

I love my piece of California. Sorry that seems to bother you.

:o