California’s industrial economy has moved elsewhere, and the attitude of many in government seems to be ‘good riddance,’ according to Joel Kotkin in the Orange County Register. “The prevailing notion in California’s ruling circles seems to be, if you have Google and Facebook, who needs dirty, energy-consuming factories or corporate operations filled with middle managers?”
California has also become a hot-spot for business recruiters from other places. Texas Gov. Rick Perry made several trips through the Golden State urging businesses to enjoy Texas’ lower taxes and regulations, with Toyota, Occidental Petroleum and other companies making the move. Toyota took 3,000 jobs with it. Even Iowa and South Dakota are looking to poach California dairies beset by high feed costs and low milk prices.
According to Kotkin, complacency has also put California’s creative economy at risk. More and more movies are being filmed not in Hollywood, for example, but in places like Louisiana.
“The trend has been mounting for high-profile films set in the Golden State to be filmed almost entirely outside California,” said a recent article in Variety “due to lucrative tax breaks elsewhere that producers can’t turn down.”
And now, as if competing with other states isn’t enough, California tech businesses are being recruited by the government of Canada. According to the Wall Street Journal, tech companies can get up to 80 percent of developers’ salaries reimbursed by the Canadian government. Incentives seem to be working quite well, despite Canadian winters and sticky residency requirements, with Cisco and seven of the 10 biggest tech firms setting up offices there. While the Wall Street Journal cautions about a less vibrant creative culture outside Silicon Valley, it does say that some startups could benefit from significant discounts on their costs. All of which goes to say that California needs to take another look at its business climate, before the state becomes just another black and white film — out of date and rather nostalgic — while the rest of the world moves on to a richly colored high-definition economy.
Photo of Texas Gov. Rick Perry by Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com
