LATimes columnist
Michael Hiltzik has a pretty good piece on doing business in California:
Wilbur D.Curtis invented the globular glass coffeepot, that staple of coffee counters everywhere, in 1940. Since then his son and grandsons have turned Wilbur Curtis Co. into a manufacturing concern that earns revenue approaching $100 million by turning out commercial coffee brewing equipment from a sprawling factory in Montebello.
But their long history in California doesn't exempt the Curtis family from the costs and hassles that give this state its reputation as one of the hardest places in the country to do business.
There's no point pretending that the state's anti-business reputation is a right-wing rap on the liberal Golden State, or a plot by the Chamber of Commerce to pump the Legislature for special favors, or -- here's the bottom line -- undeserved. It's as real as rush-hour traffic, and anyone concerned about improving the quality of life for all Californians needs to take it into consideration.
That brings us to a fundamental issue: the dysfunctional state government. One reason the state doesn't have enough money to provide essentials like decent education and adequate roads is that it squanders resources on lower-priority items, such as jailing marginal criminal offenders and giving grandchildren of elderly homeowners a property tax break.
When I was a kid, California had a population of 18 million. Now it's 36 million. When I was a kid, California had 6 prisons. Now it has 33. The prison guards union is the most powerful in the state. Locking people up here, as in the rest of the country, is big business. Try closing a prison or letting non-violent inmates out to save money and you'll find out just how powerful these bastards are, as have several governors. It's back on the table, but I don't have much hope that Ah-nold can get anywhere with it.
Mrs. G and her sister inherited a house from their grandmother and the property tax assessment did not change. Mrs. G didn't want the headache and sold her half to her sister's daughter. Mrs. G's sister pays property tax at the old rate, her niece pays about ten times as much on her half at the new rate.
Granny had lived in that house for about 70 years, and it was a nice house in a nice neighborhood and has some local historical value as well, but like a lot of old folks' houses it was in need of a lot of work in order to make it habitable for a tenant. By selling it, Mrs. G slid out of having to pay her half of the $50 grand it took. Besides just a
lot of general repair, think about bringing a 1920s house up to modern code. Gulp.
I disagree that 'giving homeowners a property tax break' is in any way a bad thing. Prop 13 saved my ass back in the '70s and continues to do so and is one of the main reasons I can afford to own the house I've lived in for 29 years. Property tax here is based on the latest purchase price, not what it would sell for. If you stay in one place for a long time you get a break. Buy a house in California today, stand by for a ram come tax time, and it's still 1% of the purchase price plus 2% annual increase plus 'special assessments', of which there are more every year and they never go away. I bought a house I could afford. It's not my fault it's gone up in value and there's no good reason I should be penalized for it.
I also think that if a house passes down in a family succession, it's wrong to screw the inheritors.
It's the
commercial property end of Prop 13 that needs to be changed, not the residential.
I'm going off on a tangent again, but it's part of my charm. Heh, but speaking of taxes, the largest increase in California income tax came under that famous anti-tax Governor, Ronald Reagan.
Anyway, go read about the coffeepot business in California. The article doesn't go into the environmental regulations that California firms need to deal with under the law, but that's another reason a lot of outfits have left.
I'm glad the coffeepot people are going to stay. I like coffeepots. I am blogging right now courtesy of one of those.
