California Unemployment is going up. Not that it wasn’t already up. It has hovered near 12% for well in excess of a year. And it certainly isn’t going to get better soon.
California has a functional $9 billion budget deficit. Meaning that functionally, because of spending mandated via legislation, and the Californian public’s absurd predisposition of spending through bond initiatives, the state is committed – by law – to spending $9 billion a year more than it takes in.
How does the state raise money – er, sorry- revenue? Taxes. Property and, primarily, income taxes. The fewer people working, the less taxes come in, the more dollars go out for Unemployment Insurance (which is already $20 Billion in debt, but that’s yet another story). So fewer people working is extra-super-double-bad for the budget deficit.
But here is an example of a California company that is growing. Waste Connections is one of the larger waste management companies in the country. They are a national business, in that that they have acquired other companies, and operate in 30 states. It is the Sacramento region’s largest publicly trade company, employing about 200 people in it’s Folsom CA office. They figure that they bring about $100 million to the local economy through various taxes, and charitable giving.
And right now, they are negotiating with Texas to move from Folsom, to Austin, Houston, or Woodlands.
Pivotal in Waste Connections’ decision to relocate to Texas, is whether a piece of legislation passes the California legislature that would allow them to move a higher volume of non-local waste to a landfill in Solano County, where they have made a $100 million dollar investment.
But it is the pervasive attitude of California government, at the State, and local levels, along with the environmental lobby, that frames the story of how California’s economy became the disgrace that it is today. In an environment where California cannot grow new jobs, it is insistent on even chasing away the jobs that are already here.
Kelly Smith, attorney for an environmental group that opposed the bill and Waste Connections’ Solano County expansion, said he hopes the company’s potential exit would result in new landfill owners who are more willing to work with the local community. “I don’t think anybody is going to miss a couple of accountants in Folsom,” said Smith, who represents Sustainability, Parks, Recycling and Wildlife Legal Defense Fund.
Lawyers. It’s always lawyers.
Mr Smith, how many jobs have you created? Mr. Smith’s solution is to run a growing local company out of the state, in the hopes, *hopes!* that other owners would submit to his green beliefs. Waste Connections has already contributed more to local communities through jobs and charitable giving than you or your feel-good, do-gooder-ism cohorts could hope to contribute in your racketeering, hold-up-artist lifetimes.
Don’t think “anybody is going to miss a few accountants in Folsom”? There are 200 employees in the Waste Connections offices in Folsom. With families. That spend money locally. That pay taxes. Taxes that help hold businesses ransom through governmental edict, so that flim flam shyster dirtbags like yourself can manipulate companies with your gangster tactics into either paying up or leaving. Have you created 200 jobs? Can you? Can you manufacture them on command? Because Folsom will be missing them, and could use those 200 jobs.
At this point, with our state collapsing in upon itself, we cannot afford to wantonly cast aside any jobs. We don’t have the luxury of selecting only those jobs that meet the narrow minded approval of the self appointed arbiters of Gaia. California should not be in the enterprise of chasing away businesses, picking winners or losers. We need to foster business and employment.
Margaret Thatcher wasn’t so far from wrong when she quipped: “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money’.” It’s even harder to run out of other people’s money when they’ve taken it and moved to Texas.
The path back to California largess is though employment. There is no other way.
Leave a Reply