California is widely viewed as one of the most anti-business states in the nation, bristling with high taxes and onerous regulations that drive companies away. The state also is seen as a leading generator of high-paying jobs in growing industries, attracting more than half of the nation’s venture capital investment.
Comparing California to other states has become a common exercise among politicians, academicians and in the media.
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown spoke only two sentences about streamlining environmental regulations in his State of the State address. But they inspired reformers to cheer.
Most people would agree that if a school, hospital or road project has been subjected to extensive environmental review and met all federal, state and local environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Air Act, the project should go forward without being sued for purported environmental reasons. Unfortunately, today, these projects are being delayed and face increased costs – many times to taxpayers – or killed altogether because of abusive litigation that has nothing to do with the environment.
The gap in income between rich and poor people and blacks and whites has grown in California over the last 20 years, according to a report from nonprofit Next 10 in San Francisco.
California’s core environmental protection law, a 43-year-old statute frequently denounced by developers and business interests as a tangle of red tape, is on a Capitol hit list once again.
In his State of the State address Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown reiterated his pitch to protect California’s water supply. But in a speech lawmakers repeatedly interrupted with applause, Brown’s plea to spend billions on water elicited silence. He was speaking to a joint session of the legislature, but his message is really for consumers — and the agencies that supply water to them.
After adding jobs at a steady clip through most of last year, California’s employment engine lost steam in December as employers reduced payrolls by 17,500 net positions.
Battle-scarred and bullet-hole-riddled over the 42 years since Gov. Ronald Reagan signed it into law, the California Environmental Quality Act likely will receive its first major overhaul in the legislative session that began Jan. 7.
The San Francisco Bay Area, a region that encompasses booming Silicon Valley, led California in job growth last year as the technology industry workforce rose.
Unemployment rates held steady in California and Los Angeles County last month but the Inland Empire saw a decline, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.
California’s labor market slowed last month as employers shed 17,500 jobs in December and the unemployment rate remained unchanged.
Silicon Valley leaped back to the top of a list of “best-performing cities” put out by the Milken Institute. The cumbersomely named San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area hasn’t taken the top spot since 2001.
While Congress and the president recently hiked taxes for 77 percent of the nation’s taxpayers, proposals for sweeping tax cuts continue to gain momentum at the state level. As the White House and Congress seem determined to make the U.S. even less economically competitive, states like Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma are considering a phase-out of their income taxes. The Wall Street Journal correctly calls it a “Heartland Tax Rebellion.”
When it was first signed into law by Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1970, the California Environmental Quality Act represented a groundbreaking statement by Californians that our environment was important and deserved protection.