Free Republic

In America, when friends learn that a woman is being abused by her husband or boyfriend, what do they do? They stage an intervention, help her find a lawyer, get a restraining order, get her out of there… as fast as possible. When a son or daughter learns that an elderly parent is receiving bad care at a nursing home, what do they do? Pack up Dad’s or Mom’s stuff, help them move to a better, safer place, file a complaint with the state’s attorney or the board of health, press charges, but first and foremost, get them out of...

California's economy continues to experience a tepid recovery since the Great Recession. One reason why: according to CEO Magazine, California has had the worst business climate in the nation for the last eight years, due in no small part to policies out of Sacramento.Any economic growth in the Golden State is largely driven from the continued tech boom in Silicon Valley - although even it may not be immune to California's poor business climate. Depending on how one categorizes "small businesses"- typically, either fewer than either 50 or 100 employees - as of the 3rd quarter of 2012, between 96%...

PEORIA -- Caterpillar Inc. will not be building its new North American plant anywhere in the state of Illinois, officials with the company told local leaders Tuesday, with part of the reason being continued concerns about the business climate in the state. The company will instead focus on a location closer to its division headquarters in Cary, N.C., Peoria County officials were told in an email sent to them shortly after the close of business and later obtained by the Journal Star. The plant stood to bring with it from Japan roughly 1,000 jobs manufacturing track-type tractors and mini hydraulic...

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...

A new survey of corporate executives considering relocating their firms provides fresh reasons to worry about California's economy. The Development Counsellors International survey found CEOs ranked California dead-last in attractiveness among the 50 states because of its high taxes and business-hobbling regulations. California's reputation is likely to grow even worse in the next few weeks when a 2008-09 state budget is finally adopted, given the probability it will raise taxes. But what is truly depressing to contemplate is what happens come January 2011, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger departs and is likely to be replaced by a Democrat. We have griped...

"A View from Corporate America: Winning Strategies in Economic Development Marketing" is the fifth installment in a series of surveys of senior U.S. executives and their advisors. Similar surveys were conducted by DCI in 1996, 1999, 2002 and 2005. (see here : http://www.aboutdci.com/WinningStrategies.aspx) From the 2008 report, the six states with the most favorable business climates are : Texas (highest ranking), North Carolina, Geogia, Florida/Tennessee (tie) and Nevada. Among executives who named Texas as having a favorable business climate, the factors mentioned most frequently are: Tax climate (31%); Labor/Workforce (Cost and availability) (29%) and Pro-business climate (26%). Among those who...

What happens in Vegas... by: Barbara Baker, July 14, 2008 Business and the business of education in Las Vegas is the most restrictive and oppressive that we have experienced out of the five western states in which we operate. We are a private, for-profit private school. We have 3- and 4-year-old classes as well as K-8 grades, that therefore puts us under the close scrutiny of child care agencies. Recently the Clark County/North Las Vegas transferred the monitoring of their North Las Vegas child care centers under the Metropolitan Police Department. They issued a warning that if my establishment were...

Business study: Iowa ranks high in affordabilityIOWA CITY (AP) — Iowa ranks only behind the Dakotas in being an affordable state in which to do business, according to a new ranking.The ranking by the California-based Milken Institute, a nonpartisan economic think tank, looked at wages, tax burden, electricity costs and real estate expenses for office and industrial space. Each category was weighted, with half the rating dependent on wages.The cost of doing business in Iowa was 20 percent below the national average, according to the ranking.Those costs were among the things Pearson Educational Management, a spinoff from the University of...

<p>BATON ROUGE - Gov. Kathleen Blanco will travel to Monroe to meet with community leaders about coping with the loss of State Farm Insurance, Northeast Louisiana's largest private employer.</p> <p>Blanco also intends to probe State Farm executives as to why they decided to close the offices there.</p>

PORTLAND, Ore. - With California roiled by the recall campaign and struggling to right its foundering economy, Oregon and other states are swooping in to try to lure some of its businesses away. Two days after the recall election, Oregon Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski mailed letters to 250 California businesses, urging them to consider moving to a state with a "clean, green and healthy reputation," lower workers' compensation taxes and less regulation. "It's always terrible when you take advantage of a sister state in difficult times," Kulongoski said in an interview. "But the truth of it is, I've been talking...

<p>Sacramento -- A bill that would have required businesses with brick-and-mortar stores in the state to collect sales tax on Internet transactions was watered down Monday after Gov. Gray Davis' administration expressed concerns about how it would affect the state's business climate.</p>

Business Tax Climate Index Ranks State Tax Systems On How Friendly They Are to Business By: The Tax Foundation May 22, 2003 Washington, D.C., May 22, 2003 - In a new study, The State Business Tax Climate Index, the Tax Foundation ranks the 50 states on how "business friendly" their tax systems were at the start of 2003. ... The Best and Worst Business Tax Climates Table 1 shows the overall results. The ten states that began 2003 with the most business-friendly tax systems are Wyoming, New Hampshire, Nevada, Colorado, Alaska, South Dakota, Florida, Washington, Oregon and Tennessee. Of these...

<p>In its annual Business Climate Survey, this year Forbes magazine included a new category: cost of doing business. Orange County ranked 129th out of 150 metropolitan areas, behind such top-ranked areas as Tulsa, Okla. and Omaha, Neb.</p> <p>Yes, other factors are at work. Those places don't have beaches, mountains and a balmy climate.</p>

<p>As a business owner in California, I share every business owner's fears about where the state and national economies are headed, and whether my business will continue to grow and be profitable. But Assemblyman Ray Haynes' Dec. 4 column ["Truth and consequences," California Focus], which calls California "inhospitable to business," is nonsense, and a terrible distortion of the state's business climate.</p>