The People's Republic of Kalifornia is a prime example
of centralized technocratic planning under the protection of a monolithic legislature that is entirely rooted in a Marxist
"global warming" climate of totalitarian collectivism. Business in this cage of redistribution exists to
support the extortion demands of the Sacramento commissars. Decades of reporting definitively conclude that the Golden State
has depleted their wealth creation resources because of persistent disincentives and outright penalties for conducting legitimate
business. The citadel of punitive regulations has been claimed by California, the undisputed champion of anti-capitalism.
Roger Niello reports in The Sacramento
Bee, Need to improve California’s business climate? Good luck with this Legislature. "Ask any business to rank the challenges of doing business in California and most will tell you that high taxes are
a problem but our regulatory burden is the worst. You will not hear that we should have no regulations, but in California
we carry the excessive burden on business to an art form."
The inevitable consequences from this unfriendly business posture is outlined in the article, Misguided State Policies Lead To More Companies Leaving California. "From 2007 through 2015, as many as 9,000 companies have left California, according to Joe Vranich, president of Spectrum
Location Solutions in Irvine. And no one should wonder why. Just by simply putting California behind them, these companies
are saving 20 percent to 35 percent a year in operating costs, Vranich says."
Next hear the struggle from the agricultural perspective, Kawamura, Cameron: Regulations threaten California agriculture's sustainability.
A.G. Kawamura shares his experience:
"While California
has a “California Agricultural Vision” document to set a purpose, vision and goals for the state's multi-billion
farming industry it might be a moot point, according to Kawamura.
“It’s as if agriculture is unwanted in this state by the current
administration and even more by this legislature,” the former Ag Secretary says."
Don Cameron chimes in:
"Restrictive regulations and dozens of different agencies affecting his
cropping decisions continue to make him less of a farmer and more of a water manager, human resources expert, and record keeper
- a few of his daily tasks.
“We know we’re going to have more regulations as we go forward; that’s a given,” Cameron
says. “We know that the California Legislature will pretty much tell us what to farm and how to farm it.”
NFIB/CA opposes doubling down on bad environmental policies with AB 398 and AB 617, Cap and Trade Lite, NFIB California State Executive Director Tom Scott issued the following statement on behalf of our 22,000 dues-paying small
business members:
“If
enacted, AB 398 and AB 617 would put us on track for one of the most regressive and expensive legislative sessions for small
businesses and all taxpayers. California has been experimenting with Cap and Trade policies for a decade, and now we have
the opportunity to step back and ask if we should be standing alone in the nation on aggressive environmental policy when
jobs are moving to neighboring states with much more relaxed laws. We cannot attack our business climate in exchange for little
to zero net benefit to our environmental climate."
“Some believe Cap and Trade only impacts big businesses that buy and sell
carbon credits, but the truth is that small businesses and consumers all pay the ultimate price of higher energy costs to
produce and deliver goods. We should be doing everything in our power to lower the cost of doing business and the cost of
living in this state, but AB 398 and AB 617 double down on bad environmental policy and make us even less competitive for
good-paying jobs."
This political
hostility, especially towards small businesses has a long history of destructive government policies and is presented in a
study issued by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC); California's Anti-Business Policies Impoverishes The 75%
"The
resolve to turn California against business started with Governor Jerry Brown in 1974. Brown saw government’s job as restraining growth, limiting development, and expanding
environmental regulations. In 1977, Time Magazine declared “the California of the 60s, a mystical land of abundance and affluence, vanished sometime in the 70s.”
Fifteen years later Gray Davis, Brown’s chief of staff during the 1970s, became Governor in 1999. Davis signed 33 bills that the state’s Chamber of Commerce called “job killers.” Perhaps the most devastating
was a restructure of worker’s compensation, which drove an increase in payments per worker from $2.30 per $100 of payroll to $6.44; tripling the annual employment costs to business from $9 billion to $25 billion. Three years later, voters recalled Davis
and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger. Unfortunately, in 2006 the “Governator” signed the Global Warming Solutions Act that critics mourn will raise electricity rates in California by another 20%."
CalChamber Releases List of New Employment Laws Affecting Businesses in 2018 illustrates some of the new mandates that will take an ever greater toll on businesses. Add to this list, 2018’s new laws: California businesses brace for changes that expand a slew of new laws that address unpaid parental leave, new hiring restrictions and other workplace issues that
will have an impact on California businesses in the coming year.
The pattern of placing roadblocks in the way of entrepreneurship is the legacy of the California bureaucratic
culture. Each year it just gets worse. California's budget deficit is back, Gov. Jerry Brown says, "the state is projected to run a $1.6-billion deficit by next summer." In a desperate attempt to sidestep a key provision of GOP tax overhaul, "California state Senate leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) has introduced a bill that would give residents a dollar-for-dollar
charitable tax credit for state income tax payments into a new California Excellence Fund."
Such gimmicks are not a sound foundation for a fiscally responsible administration.
Business confidence will continue to erode further when big government spenders refuse to reduce state budgets. California
is in a death spiral of their own making. Only a business friendly government can change this tragedy.
James Hall - January 31, 2018
