Manufacturing STILL Matters in California
This week the Milken Institute released a study that shows California has long neglected a segment of its economy that is critical to economic growth. Let’s face it, California’s business climate problems are as big and bold as its current budget morass. We must seek out, promote and value our champion industries of economic growth. According to the report, "California is the only one among its peers to lack a comprehensive long-term economic strategy."
The study takes an in-depth look at California’s manufacturing decline compared to competitive "peer" states, simulates what the state would look like if it had maintained 2000 levels of manufacturing, explains the massive economic benefits and ripple effects from high and even low wage manufacturing, assesses the challenges of manufacturing in California and makes some recommendations to make California manufacturing more competitive.
Is This Any Way to Run for Governor?
Can Tom Campbell be serious about running for governor? After all, the guy has a detailed plan on how he’ll handle the budget mess. And he says we need to temporarily raise taxes! No one REALLY running for governor puts that stuff in writing, or tells it to an audience of business people at the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
But that’s exactly what Campbell did yesterday.
Campbell knows he is running an unorthodox campaign. He readily admits that every political consultant would tell him not to talk about raising taxes. Campbell told a lunchtime gathering at the L. A. Chamber that voters want to vote for someone who is optimistic and uplifting. Well, Campbell admitted with a smile, his candidacy was testing that proposition.
Prop 13: What Is to Be Done?
Prop 13 is once again being blamed for just about everything. I don’t agree with this site’s master, Joel Fox, on much, but I do agree with him that Prop 13 gets blamed far too often for California’s troubles, and for far too many of those troubles.
Where we don’t agree is on 13 itself. I think the state’s future requires making changes in it. We’re going to see attempts next year to use the ballot to lift the Prop 13 limits on property tax increases, at least as they apply to commercial property. This is the so-called split roll. We’ll also may see an initiative to roll back the requirement of a two-thirds vote to raise taxes.
I’d like to see both changes, but the time is right only for one, not the other.
Ending the super-majority requirement is urgently needed. Whether you’re on the left or the right, whether you think taxes are too high or too low, it’s undeniable that the super-majority requirement makes it very, very hard to govern our state. Getting two-thirds of legislators to agree on anything is just about impossible. So California lawmakers are unable to respond in any sort of coherent or timely way, even in the midst of an economic and fiscal crisis.
Untie the Hands of California School Districts
The L.A. Area Chamber, together with nearly 100 of our members, recently traveled to Sacramento on our annual advocacy trip with an agenda to recover, reform and rebuild California. Budget issues and the state’s fiscal crisis are top of mind for all lawmakers, but reform is about much more than balancing the budget. It’s about encouraging business growth and investing in today’s students to ensure a competitive workforce for tomorrow’s economy.
California schools are facing drastic budget cuts that will impact every district, every school and every classroom. Having already cut more than $5.15 billion (or $860 per student) in K-12 education expenditures, our school districts still face an additional $6 billion (or $1,000 per student) in cuts for the 2010-11 fiscal year. Like the state Legislature that has been hindered in balancing the budget due in part to past voter-approved initiatives, our school districts are limited by the California Education Code in the actions they can take to effectively manage resources from the state. Simply put, their hands are often tied at a time when budget resources are limited and must be redirected to best serve the needs of students.
Digital Salute
When is the internet not the internet? When the City of Los Angeles sends you a tax bill big enough to choke your fiber optics.
The City, under Mayor Richard Riordan, lured hundreds of internet startups to LA ten years ago with a promised tax break. Some of those firms turned out pretty well, like Shopzilla.com, a shopping comparison site which now employs 220 people and, according to the LA Times, spends over half a million a year just on locally catered lunches for staff.
The City, in its panicked grasp for ready cash, decided to re-define the term “internet” and silently dropped tax bill bombs on several of these companies. Shopzilla’s past-due definition overhaul cost them $2.5 million in additional taxes. They’ll see the City in court.