Reply #10: you're right...

[greencharlie]

I had read a story earlier where they were talking about a boycott over AZ and other staes who might pursue immigration legislation. So I was also thinking about that...


But regarding CA... we're famous for chasing business out of state. Prime examples:

In a February 24, 2010 Orange County blog, Jan Norman noted that ''an Irvine business relocation specialist has come up with a list of 100 California companies that have expanded elsewhere or pulled up stakes entirely (and left California) in this decade.''


The list includes the following, among others:



Abraxis Health (Los Angeles), Apple Computer, Assurant Inc. (Orange County), Automobile Club of Southern California, Bazz Houston Co. (Garden Grove), Beckman Coulter (Brea), BPI Labs (Sacramento), CalPortland Cement (Riverside County), Checks To-Go, Creators Syndicate (L.A.), DaVita Inc. (L.A.), Digital Domain (Venice), Ditech (Costa Mesa), DuPont Fabros Technology (Santa Clara), eBay (San Jose), Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine), Facebook (Palo Alto), FallLine Corporation (Huntington Beach), Fidelity National Financial (Santa Barbara), First American Corp.(Santa Ana), Fluor Corp. (Aliso Viejo), Hilton Hotels Corp. (Beverly Hills), Intel Corporation (Santa Clara), Intuit (Mountain View), J.C. Penny (Sacramento), Knight Protective Industries, Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc. (Irvine), Lennox Hearth Products Inc. (Orange), MiaSolA (Silicon Valley), Patmont Motor Werks, Inc., Pixel Magic (Toluca Lake), Premier Inc. (San Diego), Pro Cal of South Gate, Red Truck Fire & Safety Company (Fresno), Simple Tech (Santa Ana), Solar World (Camarillo), Special Devices Inc. (Moorpark), StarKist, Stasis Engineering (Sonoma County), Tapmatic (Orange County), Telmar Network Technology Inc. (Irvine), Terremark (Santa Clara), Terumo Cardiovascular Systems (Orange County), Toyota (Fremont), True Games Interactive (Irvine), Twentieth Century Props of L.A., U.S. Airways (Orange County), US Press (L.A.), USAA Insurance (Sacramento), Yahoo.



Specific reasons given for relocating vary but, in general, they all demonstrate dissatisfaction with the business climate in California:



Bazz Huston Co. “has slowly been building a workforce of about 35 people in Tijuana. The company said it expects to move more jobs to Mexico, citing cost and regulatory difficulties in California.
BPI Labs relocated to Evanston, Wyoming, a move the company’s owner called “very successful,” saying, “It felt good and I’ve never looked back.”
Workers comp rates in Utah help make Checks To-Go financially healthier.
Creators Syndicate said Los Angeles operates like a “banana republic.”
FallLine Corporation said they were being “hammered” with multiple government regulator fees in California.
Fidelity National Bank referred to California’s “oppressive” business environment.
Intuit of Mountain View created a customer support office with 110 people outside of California because of lower operating costs.
Knight Protective Industries moved to Oregon “where 4-day work weeks were permitted by the state” and wanted by their employees.
Lennox Hearth Products Inc., moved to Tennessee “to reduce costs and increase operating inefficiencies.”
Patmont Motor Werks Inc. (GoPed manufacturer) left California after being hit by California regulators for hundreds of thousands of dollars in small fines, even though his company has a stellar record.
Red Truck Fire & Safety Company left California “because of California’s myriad fees and regulations” that amounted to “death by a thousand cuts.”
Solar World moved to Oregon after the state offered property tax abatement and business energy tax credits.
Stasis Engineering moved to West Virginia where there is “a friendlier business climate.”
Tapmatic’s owners were “fed up with the onerous business environment.”
Twentieth Century Props of LA. went out of business as film-making moved to lower-cost states.
US Press shifted work to Portland, “where union rules were almost rational.”

“The list will undoubtedly grow as Sacramento considers more measures that will increase corporate taxes, increase workers' comp costs, increase regulatory reporting requirements (along with higher fines for minor infractions), increase gasoline and diesel-fuel taxes, increase water rates, increase electric-power rates, and increase assorted fees that will cause services to become more expensive.”



Keep in mind that the list from which the foregoing was taken named over 100 companies that have taken flight from California. It reads like a Who’s Who of corporate America in California, and it appears that there is no end in sight to the exodus of firms from the “Golden State” to escape the oppressive regulatory and tax climate that harasses California businesses.



This trend is one of the major reasons for the state’s high rate of unemployment, which was 12.5% in January, with the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metro area at 15%.