California Demon

[Geee]

American Spectator:

THE LATEST UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS show the economic recovery stalling. But as weak as the national economy is, it’s nothing compared to the condition of some states whose policies are guaranteed to scare away jobs and investment.

Call it the European Disease: Run up spending and debt, raise taxes in the name of balancing the budget, and then watch as jobs flee, deficits rise, and credit ratings fall.

Chief Executive magazine has just come out with a survey of 650 corporate CEOs on the business climate in their states. They ranked local conditions on a range of issues, including regulations, tax policies, work force quality, educational resources, quality of living, and infrastructure.

It won’t surprise anyone who has followed the annual survey to learn which state finished in the back of the pack, and which finished first. California was dead last in attractiveness to business for the eighth year in a row, while Texas came in first for the eighth consecutive time.

“CEOs tell us that California seems to be doing everything possible to drive business from the state. Texas, by contrast, has been welcoming companies and entrepreneurs, particularly in the high-tech arena,” J.P. Donlon, editor of Chief Executive, said in May during the survey’s release.

Indeed, with its malfunctioning economy, California is fast becoming an American version of Greece. It has an unemployment rate of 10.9 percent, the highest of all states save Rhode Island and Nevada. (April figures, the most recent available at press time.) Because of its generous benefit structures for the poor, California has a third of all welfare recipients in the country, even though it’s home to less than an eighth of the U.S. population. The Golden State’s environmental extremism results in electricity rates 50 percent higher than the national average.

Then there are taxes. Even middle-class families earning $48,000 a year pay a state tax rate of 9.3 percent, a higher rate than millionaires pay in 47 other states. A ballot measure backed by liberal legislators will ask state voters this fall if they want to raise the top rate on high earners to a staggering 13.3 percent.

Naturally, this economic version of Dante’s circles of hell has driven jobs from the state at an increasing pace. One relocation firm calculates that last year, a total of 254 California companies moved some of their work and jobs out of state—a number that is 26 percent higher than that of 2010 and five times higher than 2009.