News

The good news is California’s economy will keep growing this year. The bad news is it will be more of the same lackluster growth the state has seen since the recession ended in 2009.

(Reuters) – Texas Governor Rick Perry’s latest sales pitch to California businesses boils down to four words: Texas is no California.

Gov. Jerry Brown ought to cut his Texas brother, Rick Perry, a little slack. Texas Gov. Perry arrived in the Golden State this week trolling for California businesses he could poach and carry home with him in his saddlebags.

What some see as California’s most important environmental law, others see as an economic impediment. The 43-year-old California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, guides almost every development project in the state.

SACRAMENTO – Although many of California’s legislative Democrats are eager to “test drive” the new two-thirds majorities their caucuses hold in the Assembly and Senate – i.e., pushing the limits of their power to advance their progressive agenda – others are focusing on a sensible reform that almost everyone knows is slowing job growth.

Some are calling it a bold, aggressive action. To me, it’s simply an act of desperation. The governor of Texas has been creating a little media buzz with his latest effort at poaching California businesses. After first buying airtime for a radio spot in a few media markets, he’s now following up with personal visits to businesses in some key California markets, including Orange County.

Last November, Californians risked their money on state government. Despite five years of closed businesses, lost jobs, and replacement jobs that pay far less, Californians trusted the state with more of their hard-earned money. With some of the highest tax rates in the nation, Governor Jerry Brown has declared California’s government is on the road to solvency.

The battle lines are being drawn in the upcoming legislative fight over California’s environmental review laws.

MOUNTAIN VIEW — Silicon Valley’s job growth has returned to dot-com boom levels and San Francisco has emerged as a major new tech hub. But good times have not returned for all area residents and ethnic groups.

Texas doesn’t have redwood forests, a spot on the Pacific, Hollywood or a team in the last Super Bowl or World Series. But it doesn’t have California’s taxes either.

Business Climate: Last year’s tax hike was a short-term fix, at best, for the Golden State’s woes. For lasting prosperity, job creators need to trust the politicians. Right now, they don’t.

Three of California’s former governors have banded together to urge an overhaul of the state’s landmark environmental law, saying the 40-year-old measure needs to be “modernized” to help speed the Golden State’s economic recovery.

During his State of the State address, Gov. Jerry Brown laid out his vision of investing in public infrastructure, reinvesting in public schools and universities, assuring a safe and reliable water supply, and shifting toward cleaner energy. To accomplish these goals, the governor called on state leaders to engage in a number of necessary actions including meaningful regulatory reform, with particular focus on modernizing the 40-year-old California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.

More than two-thirds of California business leaders see the state as an extraordinarily difficult state in which to operate, a new survey by the California Business Roundtable has found.

There has always been a certain level of competitiveness among the States. Of course, the football rivalry between Michigan and Ohio State is legendary. But, on a more serious note, economic competitiveness goes all the way back to colonial days.