Proposition 23 to suspend the greenhouse gases law until unemployment drops dramatically has split the business community. Early this week, the California Manufacturer and Technology Association president, Jack Stewart, argued on this site that Proposition 23 must pass to preserve jobs and battle the high costs associated with the law. Other business groups including the California Small Business Association and the California chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business join him in this concern.
On Wednesday in Burbank, a press conference, which included business representatives, delivered the message that Proposition 23 must be defeated to create jobs.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was supposed to anchor the media conference but took a pass to continue budget negotiations. Greg Lippe, former board chair of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA), a business association powerhouse in the San Fernando Valley, led the event noting that "420 individual businesses, chambers of commerce and business associations" opposed Proposition 23 because they felt the measure would kill economic development and jobs.
I asked Lippe why the split in the business community? Lippe agreed that many manufacturing jobs had been lost over the last decade but he said the way to grow the manufacturing sector is for California to embrace green jobs.
Lippe said there is a segment of the business community that has invested in new technology to help meet the greenhouse gases requirements incorporated in AB 32, the state law Proposition 23 is attempting to suspend. He argued that these businesses would be punished if the plug were pulled on AB 32 implementation.
Lippe contended that passing Proposition 23 would send a message to investors to go somewhere outside of California to invest in green technology. He also said that if California surrenders the momentum of building a green technology other states or nations will capture the market "and we will be buying (green technology products) from China."
The economy and business climate are a major part of what is wrong with California. Proposition 23’s role in fixing the business climate could be decided by whichever side is more persuasive in the debate going on within the business community.