Fleeing high Taxes and oppressive Regulations

From Eric Dondero:

Donald Douglas of American Power blog has deemed it "California's wrecker economy."

Most shocking, the famed California burger joint Carl's Jr. is moving its corporate headquarters from Carpinteria, CA to Austin, Texas. Two other corporate giants - EBay and Dunn-Edwards Paints are leaving California. EBay will open an office and hire 1,000 workers in Austin. Other prime locations for firms leaving Cali: Houston, Dallas, Lexington, KY, and Salt Lake City, UT.

Cali's loss is Texas's gain

From the OCRegister "69 more firms move jobs, facilities out of California":

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 bottom line:

Why do these and the other companies move out of California? Vranich has updated his top 10 reasons that California companies call the moving van.

Number 10 is: 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.

"There is little evidence that California’s business environment will improve considering that the legislature in 2011 has voted down litigation reform, tax-increase plans are underway, and a host of new regulations are to be implemented that will increase costs for literally every business," Vranich says.