News

California ranked 48th out 50 states in the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation’s 2014 State Business Tax Climate Index.

As late as the 80s, California was democratic in a fundamental sense, a place for outsiders and, increasingly, immigrants—roughly 60 percent of the population was considered middle class. Now, instead of a land of opportunity, California has become increasingly feudal. According to recent census estimates,  the state suffers some of the highest levels of inequality in the country. By some estimates, the state’s level of inequality compares with that of such global models as  the Dominican Republic, Gambia, and the Republic of the Congo.

Riverside, Calif. – California state economic development director Kish Rajan and deputy director Louis Stewart today joined state and local elected officials in Riverside to announce the designation of four new Innovation Hubs (i-Hub), further expanding the largest network of state sponsored innovation clusters in the U.S. This announcement comes just days after Governor Brown signed legislation–AB 250–to formally recognize the i-Hub program in statute and establish the Innovation Accelerator Account.

Sacramento, Calif. – Director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), Kish Rajan announced today that Governor Brown has signed legislation to streamline the state’s export certificate program and decrease delays for California businesses looking to export goods.

Location production days increased 9.5 percent in the quarter to 11,792, according to FilmL.A., a downtown Los Angeles non-profit organization that handles production permitting in the City of Los Angeles, unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County and other local jurisdictions.

Sacramento, Calif. – Executive director of the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (I-Bank) Teveia Barnes announced today that Governor Brown has signed legislation to expand the I-Bank and increase small business lending in California.

Governor Jerry Brown has signed legislation that will kill the Franchise Tax Board attempt to retroactively collect taxes from stockholders who took advantage of small business investment incentives that a court later ruled were part of an illegal program.

As I travel around California visiting with our many small business members, these mom and pop employers have told me almost every story of lawsuit abuse imaginable: customers pretending to slip and fall in order to sue a business, lawsuits over the blue paint on a parking space being faded, businesses facing Prop. 65 lawsuits for not warning customers that alcohol is bad for them…the list goes on and on.

The battle is on to get more support for film and television production from the California government. Only days after Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti put industry vet Tom Sherak in charge of lobbying Sacramento for more tax credits for Hollywood, the Motion Picture Association of America has issued a new call to bolster the incentive program for big-budget blockbusters.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed into law changes to Proposition 65, the state’s landmark anti-toxins law, that aim to reduce lawsuits and fines for businesses.

SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today signed 18 bills to strengthen the state’s business climate.

Today’s action builds on the legislation Governor Brown signed in July to revamp the state’s economic development program, known as the Governor’s Economic Development Initiative (AB 93 and SB 90). The Initiative, which received broad, bipartisan support in the Legislature, helps bolster California’s business climate and put Californians to work by establishing a statewide sales tax exemption on all manufacturing equipment and research and development equipment purchases for biotech and manufacturing companies; hiring credits for businesses in areas with the highest unemployment rate and poverty; and provides the opportunity for California businesses to compete for available tax credits based on the number of jobs to be created and retained, wages paid in those jobs and other factors.

SACRAMENTO – Moving to defend Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.’s landmark package of pension reforms, the state of California today sued the U.S. Department of Labor for improperly denying federal grants to California public transit providers after it erroneously concluded that the pension reforms constrain workers’ collective bargaining rights.

“Bringing this lawsuit is just another step to ensure that our pension system is viable long into the future,” said Governor Brown.

Two state legislators said this week they will introduce motions next January to boost tax incentives for film and television production, one of a handful of bills addressing runaway production.

“Solar power itself is a good thing, but Germany’s pro-renewables policy has been a disaster. It has the absurd distinction of completing the trifecta of bad energy policy:

1. Bad for consumers
2. Bad for producers
3. Bad for the environment (yes, really; I’ll explain)

Pretty much the only people who benefit are affluent home-owners and solar panel installation companies. A rising tide of opposition and resentment is growing among the German press and public.”

Four measures, part of a package of 18 business-friendly bills approved Friday, seek to ease the regulatory burden on developers of smartphone-based payment systems; reverse a retroactive tax hike on investors in small start-up companies, and create a “Made in California” program to help market innovative, locally manufactured consumer products.