Thread: Tax policies drive out California businesses

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Tax policies drive out California businesses
BRIAN CHATWIN
Staff Writer
A few weeks ago, I read an article in the Los Angeles Times bemoaning the exodus of yet another California based business. In this case, it was the Nissan production plant based in Southern California. The article featured one man, who with his life partner, had to choose to either take the offer to relocate with Nissan and sacrifice “first release independent films” or find other employment.

Because the job market is not exceptionally hot for automotive engineers, this man and his partner decided to relocate with the company to Tennessee, where the new plant was being constructed.

What was the reason for Nissan’s relocation? The taxes levied by the State of California onto Nissan were so oppressive, that in the long run it was more cost effective to build a new facility from the ground up, retool their plant, and relocate or rehire their workforce, then continue operating under such a burdensome taxation.

While the LA Times article featured the plight of the engineer and his boyfriend moving to a not-so-friendly alternative lifestyle state such as Tennessee, it failed to examine the larger issue, that the State of California is driving business out from its lust for social programs. A simple glance at the past year’s state revenue reveals that between personal income, business-corporate and insurance taxes, that corporations and the people who work for them are footing more than 50 percent of California’s tax bill. In return, the state spends that same 50 percent on a failing public school system and a Medi-Cal program that in large part subsidized the health care of the illegal immigrant population.

Admittedly, in a vacuum, the ideals of the socialistic left are good. Public education should, in theory, create a better society full of productive workers. Free health care to those that cannot afford it, as we have with Medi-Cal, serve the population at large by curtailing communicable diseases. Requiring those who can pay (as in corporations) to offset the cost for those who cannot pay (as in illegal immigrants) makes some sense. But something has gone wrong for the leftist Democrats. They have bastardized Lyndon Johnson’s version of the Great Society and put California on the brink of collapse.

The problem is that the ideas of the socialist left don’t exist in a vacuum. They are put into practice by an unchecked legislature who salivate at the windfall of revenue that personal and corporate taxes kick off. These socialists, who call themselves progressives, are finally tasting the fruit that the last 30 years of warped policy has born. As businesses like Nissan and countless others exit the state, opting for much friendlier havens like Tennessee, the General Assembly is wondering why state revenues have decreased, why the people throw referendums on the ballot each year, and why the last democrat governor was recalled from office?

The failed policies of the left, providing an unchecked and unregulated Medi-Cal system and an entitled educational bureaucracy, have turned the state over from a once prosperous market economy to that of a socialistic utopia – where the biggest employer in the state is the government itself. Unfortunately, as in all socialist economies, crime is rampant, fraud goes unchecked, and only the elites in power are well fed.

Looking around the state, socialists clothed in the do-good cause of the Democratic Party have liberalized public policy to the detriment of once-beautiful cities. The antiquated rent-control policies of Hollywood have turned that once golden town into a virtual slum, decrepit and falling apart. Up north, San Francisco now legalizes the selling of marijuana on the historic and touristy Fisherman’s Wharf, causing a spike in petty theft and robbery in the area. To the south, Escondido’s water and sewer systems are failing as many homes all over the city are housing as many as 15 illegal immigrants in a house designed for five people, straining the city’s infrastructure.

Fortunately, for the rest of us, we can follow the example of Nissan and vote with our feet. Younger people wishing for a better life can opt to move to places like Las Vegas, Boise or Nashville where jobs abound and taxes are low.

Not all of us have to eat the bitter California fruit from the socialist’s tree.

Submitted 8-28-2006

What was the reason for Nissan’s relocation? The taxes levied by the State of California onto Nissan were so oppressive, that in the long run it was more cost effective to build a new facility from the ground up, retool their plant, and relocate or rehire their workforce, then continue operating under such a burdensome taxation.

Same thing here in Illinois. They like to brag about new jobs but it's all low wage and it certainly isn't enough to live here. Tax revenue is all they think about.

I think there will soon be a mass exodus from California, I don't think it is quite the golden state it use to be. More and more companies will opt to leave and go where it is cheaper.

Great article. Business does not have to stay here in the U.S. and pay the whole tax load for socialist recipients that pay little or no taxes. There is no escape from competition for business.
The writer might want to reconsider his children's escape plan and begin to fight. There is no escape from competition for people.

Younger people wishing for a better life can opt to move to places like Las Vegas, Boise or Nashville where jobs abound and taxes are low.

[quote=loservillelabor]Great article. Business does not have to stay here in the U.S. and pay the whole tax load for socialist recipients that pay little or no taxes. There is no escape from competition for business.
The writer might want to reconsider his children's escape plan and begin to fight. There is no escape from competition for people.

Younger people wishing for a better life can opt to move to places like Las Vegas, Boise or Nashville where jobs abound and taxes are low.

And if they don't fight back...in a few years, their kid's will have to leave the USA to find work!