Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

Here’s Sierra Business Council President Steve Frisch’s rebuttal opposing Prop. 23, providing the “other side” to George Rebane’s KVMR commentary last week. Steve’s opinion was aired on KVMR tonight. George’s commentary, “Is Prop. 23 relevant to Nevada County” is here. Steve’s, which he graciously forwarded, is below.

Those of you who followed the dialog here from the weekend — what we call “inside the sausage factory” in the newsroom — can understand the somewhat thankless job of being an Editor. You raise the issue of getting both sides and get hit with a dose of defensiveness (Paul Emery), “how dare you” question KVMR’s journalistic integrity (Bob Crabb) even personal attacks (George Rebane and Russ Steele). From Steve’s standpoint, I’m sure he will keep a Prop. 23 “op ed” in the hopper and be even more proactive going forward. As for me, I’m happy to be eating some ice cream while blogging. Thanks to all for making this happen. The community will really benefit from the two-way discussion ahead of the county supervisors being asked to endorse Prop. 23.

Herewith Steve:

“Four years ago California passed a clean air law that holds polluters accountable and requires them to reduce air pollution that threatens human health and contributes to global climate change. Today two Texas oil companies are spending millions to push Proposition 23, a deceptive measure that would gut California clean technology and energy investments, kill jobs, create more air pollution, and increase our dependence on foreign oil.

The Clean Tech and Energy sector of California’s economy is outperforming the rest of our economy by about 4-1. California’s clean tech sector received $9 billion in venture capital investment between 2005 and 2009, more than 5 times the investment of our closest competing state. There are more than 12,000 Clean Tech companies in California who employ more than 500,000 workers. Many of these jobs are being created in the Sierra Nevada, through growing investments in energy efficiency, solar installation, and biomass, wind and geothermal energy. A budding domestic manufacturing sector—good, clean, high paying, benefit generating jobs—is being created. If we roll back our clean energy standards California will lose hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of investment to other states, or to China, our closest international competitor. Proposition 23 will kill jobs by eliminating the incentives and investments that can fuel our economic recovery.

Air pollution is a major threat to public health in California, with alarming rates of asthma and lung disease, especially amongst children. 1 in 6 California children have asthma, or the precursors to asthma, costing more than $500 million a year. Each year California’s air pollution crises, which we see here in Nevada County as ozone and particulate alerts, contribute to thousands of premature deaths, trips to the hospital, and huge public health costs. Proposition 23 will let the Texas oil companies and other polluters off the hook—drastically increasing public health costs, and making you pay the price. That’s why proposition 23 is strongly opposed by the American Lung Association and AARP.

Proposition 23 will increase dependence on oil and coal, and increase costs to California consumers. The tragic oil spill in the gulf has reinforced our understanding that we must move to clean sources of energy to reduce our dependence on costly, dirty oil. This event, coupled with the billions of dollars a year we spend protecting international oil supplies, in essence subsidizing oil through foreign wars, should be enough to convince us that our pocketbooks, and national security, depend upon developing clean domestic supplies of energy.

Finally, Proposition 23 is a deceptive measure, funded by out of state oil companies, whose California properties are amongst the biggest polluters in our State. They want you to think that Proposition 23 would merely suspend our clean air laws, but it will kill them, and the economic opportunity they are creating. These are the same folks who brought us Enron and its
billions of dollars of cost to consumers in California.

Nevada County voters should not be fooled. Our future of clean energy is ahead of us, driving innovation and prosperity for our residents. Proposition 23 is a job killer that will halt that future in its tracks. Please vote no on proposition 23.

My name is Steve Frisch, I am the President of the Sierra Business Council, representing more than 700 businesses in our region. These opinions are not necessarily shared by KVMR. Thanks for listening.

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Editor’s note: Kim Janousek, chairman of CABPRO and an owner of the Fowler Center and B&C Hardware, posted this write-up on CABPRO’s website — the cost of doing business in California.

The link is here.

We enjoy shopping at B&C Hardware. My only suggestions would be keeping up on inventory. The last two times I tried to find something there — mosquito bait for a bug zapper and a Tide instant stain remover pen stick — they were out. I also don’t think business and politics always mix for the customers, so I wish the CABPRO newsletter was put in a more obscure location, rather than on the counter when you walk in the door.

When it comes to small business, I also see some benefits provided by government and others, including some of the tax deductions, grants, training and small-business loans that are out there. Details on the Sierra Economic Development Corp. — a private nonprofit — is here.

What do you think about Kim’s points?

“Cost of doing business in California
by Kim Janousek

“It’s no secret that the business climate in California is a like a sinking ship and it’s going down fast. And business owners throughout the state will tell you that there is no one knocking on their doors asking, “How can I help?” In fact, there is a general lack of concern by government about the private businesses that create the jobs in this state. The complaints include regulations that are poorly conceived and managed to high taxes and fees and overly strict enforcement of simple human paperwork errors. The state is just simply over-regulated.

The top ten reasons why California companies are leaving California are:

#10. UNFAIR TAXES! California now ranks No. 46 for tax fairness. Yes, that’s right. CFO Magazine ranked California the worst state in how it treats its taxpayers!

# 9. MOST EXPENSIVE BUSINESS LOCATIONS! California cities continue to be some of the most expensive locations to do business in the United States. The Milken Institute found that California businesses are paying 23% more that the national average just to operate here!

# 8. WORST PERFORMING LABOR!: The Pacific Research Institute last August found that California’s labor performance in a recent five-year period, at a ranking of 48, makes it among the worst performing in the nation.

# 7. WORST LEGAL TREATMENT! The Civil Justice Association of California said the state ranks 44th in legal fairness to business. Los Angeles was once again named the least fair and reasonable litigation environment in the nation.

# 6. WORST REGULATORY BURDEN! The consulting firm Bain & Company constructed a “regulatory hassle index” that found “California is far worse than any other state by a very significant margin.” This finding was echoed by Development Counselors International that found that 72 percent of surveyed corporate executives listed California as having the “worst business climate” of all 50 United States.

# 5. HARSH TREATMENT LEADS TO EXITS! Again Bain & Company found that more than half of California business leaders- an astonishing 60 percent- said they have policies in place to restrict job growth in the state or move jobs to other U.S. locations. Intel has said it will never build another plant in California, and in March McAfee admitted it intentionally avoids hiring in California, has transferred entire departments elsewhere, and saves
between 30 to 40 % every time it hires outside of the state of California.

# 4. DOWNRIGHT UNFRIENDLY! The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council in Virginia found that California ranked 49th overall in terms of business friendliness. And in February that same conclusion was echoed when The Mercalus Center at George Mason University ranked California 48th in economic, regulatory and personal freedoms in the 50 states.

# 3. UNCONTROLLABLE SPENDING! California now has the lowest credit rating of any of the 50 states because of its extravagant spending.
A recent poll shows that 83% of this year’s likely voters believe the state’s budget situation is a big problem. A Stanford University professor interpreting the polls concluded that people are much angrier about California government – more than they’ve ever been in recorded polling history.

# 2. EXCESSIVELY ADVERSARIAL! For two consecutive years, Chief Executive Magazine found California to be the worst state in the nation in which to do business. One CEO said, “California is terrible. Even when we’ve paid their high taxes in full, they still treat every conversation as adversarial. We have actually walked away from business rather than deal with the government in Sacramento. It’s the most difficult state in the nation.” The magazine goes on to call California the “Venezuela of the North.”

# 1. AND…THE #1 REASON – UNHAPPINESS! When you total up the nine reasons above you have unhappiness. This year LiveScience.com reported that California ranks 46th on a national “Happiness” list and our political culture and policies cause problems for anyone attempting to attract and retain businesses.

Please note that not one of the sources cited above owes its existence to being an anti-tax organization!

Much of the blame can be heaped on an elite political class that has unfortunately lost touch with the needs of its citizens and the proper role of government, which has been taken over by special interest lobbyists.

These same politicians assure us that things will improve if “we the people” just become passive and let the professional bureaucrats run our lives.

President Regan once said, “In this present crisis, government is NOT the solution to our problem; government IS the problem.”

Source: Joseph Vranich, Irvine, California. Joseph Vranich is an Executive Coach with clients located throughout the United States and Canada.”

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