With
Speaker John Perez’s success in getting his bills on Vernon’s disincorporation
to the Senate floor, the question is: Will Vernon’s "Texas campaign" intensify
or is it just a negotiating ploy? Looking at the situation, it appears real.
Competition
between states for businesses and jobs was ratcheted up a notch when Texas
Governor Rick Perry took the unusual step about a month ago of writing to some
disaffected Vernon businesses frustrated with the Speaker’s effort to fold the
industrial city into Los Angeles County. Perez proposes to make Vernon a Community
Services District in an effort to end government corruption there.
Vernon
businesses and labor argue jobs will be lost if the Perez bills become law and
the city’s business friendly advantages are threatened.
Governor
Perry pounced, writing in part to Vernon businesses: "As the state of
California continues to support legislation that causes undue burden and
taxation on companies doing business in the Los Angeles area, I invite you to
consider your future in America’s new land of opportunity: the state of Texas.
If California doesn’t want your business, Texas does."
Vernon highlighted the Texas effort in a print and radio
campaign. Billboards such as the one shown here, popped up in Southern
California. This particular billboard sits on the corner of 4th and
Central in downtown Los Angeles. You can listen to the radio ad here.
Officials in California reacted sharply to Texas’ effort. A
spokesman for state Treasurer Bill Lockyer called Texas’ job hunting effort in
California "bogus." According
to the L. A. Times, the official said: "Texas has had about as much
success capturing California jobs as Elmer Fudd did when he hunted Bugs
Bunny. And the governor won’t have any better luck preying on
Vernon."
But they see things differently in Texas where Perry’s
efforts speaking directly to Vernon businesses also made the media. WFAA-TV in
Dallas reported
on its website that Southern Methodist University business professor Mike
Davis said: "Since 2004, over 140,000 people have left California to move
to Texas." Davis added, "It must be very frustrating for places like
California that are seeing a migration out of the state."
Now that the Perez bills are a step closer to passing out of
the legislature the Texas play will get real. Don’t be surprised to see some
business leaders take highly visible scouting trips to Texas looking for a
possible home for their businesses.
Aside from the potential loss of a business friendly
environment in Vernon, the business leaders in California are also hearing
rumors about a potential split roll initiative to raise business property taxes
as well as having to deal with new costly regulations as the AB 32
environmental law is implemented.
Is it any surprise that Vernon businesses would seriously
consider a move to Texas?