Oh don’t even start me on this! California was THE car capital of the world 40 years ago. Today I don’t think there is a single car company left.
California was THE aerospace capital of the world. Pretty much gutted, except for some parts and engineering mainly helicopter that I know of.
The politicians said it was OK and that California needed to get rid of those jobs to make way for higher paying better jobs. That was stupid. We could have kept both. And besides, when the industrial base leaves it is very hard to bring it back look at Michigan. We got lucky with technology but I don’t think California will recover well from this recession. 12% unemployment and it is just too difficult to start a new business in this state.
We are still the tech capital but I think that is mainly because those are low-overhead (relatively) industries and the people like to live in California. If they had to pay all the taxes and fees that hard industries pay they would bail.
I run a manufacturing business. I don’t want to say what but pretend it is a McDonalds (it’s not). I pay an annual permit fee for each piece of equipment in my business. It’s like a permit for the fryer, the oven, the stovetop, the coke dispenser etc etc. This is above and beyond the taxes for electricity and gas and water, above and beyond the sales taxes. It is a separate permit just to have those pieces of equipment. I pay about $6000 a year for those permits. It is insulting to me. I pay for the privelege of manufacturing in California and hiring Californians.
If the tech companies had to pay a permit for each desktop computer, or each router, or each server, they would bail out of this state. Why do I have to pay for my equipment which is used to generate jobs and income in this state? Does McDonalds pay a fryer tax? Does an accountant pay a calculator tax? I pay this tax because, as a manufacture, I am regulated by the AQMD and they need my permit fees to fund their enforcement and compliance of the regulations.
I am regulated by at least 20 different agencies and some of them are identical at the state, local and federal levels. Sure they each have their own regulations but why can’t the local regulator do the enforcement for the state and the feds too? Why do I need all 3 to do essentially the same job?
Don’t get me started!!!
I didn’t have to. Sacramento did.