Russ Steele
I have wrtten many times during the Prop 23 debate about companies leaving California, especially the reports by Joe Vranich, who is a relocation consultant in Irvine California. The Orange County Register has a update report for 2011, based on the observations of Joe Vranich.
“So far this year, 69 companies have moved all or part of their California work and jobs to other states or countries, reports Irvine relocation consultant Joe Vranich.
It’s the fastest rate of departures since Vranich started tracking the exodus in 2009, he says. There have been an average of 4.7 moves per week from Jan. 1 through April 12, compared to 3.9 moves in all of 2010.
The numbers are low, Vranich says, estimating that only one in five out-of-state moves is made public.
In what he calls “disinvestment events,” Vranich counts companies that move jobs, facilities or headquarters out of California. He doesn’t count companies that invest outside the state for growth or marketing reasons.
You can read the rest of the story here. Of the eleven companies that have left Orange County in 2011 five, almost 50% have moved to Texas. Vranich has updated his ten top reasons for companies leaving California, with a new number 10 the rising cost of energy.
Number 10 is new: Energy costs soaring because of new laws and regulations. Commercial electrical rates are already 50% higher than the rest of the country, Vranich says, and Gov. Jerry Brown just signed a new law increasing the amount of power utilities must buy from renewable sources plus regulations for the California Global Warming Solutions Act will start soon.
The other reasons, Vranich says, are:
9. High and unfair tax treatment
8. Regulatory burden
7. Unfriendly legal environment for business
6. Most expensive place to do business
5. Provable savings elsewhere
4. Public policies and taxes create unfriendly business climate
3. Uncontrollable public spending
2. More adversarial toward business than any other state
1. Poor rankings for California on lists ranging from taxes to crime rates to school dropout rates.
My emphasis added, as this blog has reported many times that rising energy cost would drive companies from the state. It will be interesting to see how the above list will match up with the list of reasons that Assmeblyman Logue and his team assemble when they return from Texas, where they are discovering why California companies move to Texas. Stay Tuned.
H/T to Heliogenc Climate Change for the tip.
