New Mexico steals California jobs

'Breaking Bad'
Bill would help New Mexico steal California film jobs

• The entire world is stealing film industry jobs from high tax and over regulated California.
• Anti-business Democrats are clueless as entertainment industry jobs flood out of state. 

Supporters have dubbed it the "Breaking Bad" bill.

For five seasons, the AMC TV series has been a hit for the cable network and an economic boon to the state of New Mexico, where the drama starring Bryan Cranston is set and produced.


GOP Governor Susana Martinez
is eagerly stealing California jobs.

Now that the series is shooting its final season, however, New Mexico is attempting to beef up its film incentive to attract new dramas to help restore the state's position as one of the leading destinations for film production outside of California.

State legislators recently unanimously approved a bill that would boost New Mexico's TV production refundable tax credit to 30% from 25%. The incentive works like a rebate, giving filmmakers credit toward what they spend on crews and vendors in the state.

To qualify, TV productions would have to film at least six episodes in New Mexico and hire local crews reports the Los Angeles Times.

The credit also allows producers to bring in outside crews so long as they make a good faith effort to hire in state and contribute to local job training programs.

Producers of feature films also could get an additional 5% rebate on what they spend to hire local crews.

If the state Senate and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez approve the bill, it could be passed as early as the spring, raising the competitive stakes for California, which offers a tax credit of 20% to 25% of qualified spending.

Iowa GOP Gov. Terry Branstad
came to California to take jobs away.

The proposed legislation comes at a time when Los Angeles already has seen a sharp falloff in production of one-hour dramas and television pilots because of competition from New York and other states.

The proposed legislation also is intended to put New Mexico in a more competitive position relative to other states, especially Georgia, Louisiana and New York, that already offer a 30% credit.

New Mexico still attracts some big productions — "The Avengers" and "The Lone Ranger" filmed there — because of its proximity to L.A., its local crew base and varied geography.

But it's no longer considered the chief rival to California as it was five years ago, when Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, aggressively courted the film industry with rebates, loans and job training programs.

Massive new production facilities sprouted, and several vendors and support companies followed suit.


Iowa Governor Terry E. Branstad On Why His State is a Top State for Business 

Shows like The Walking Dead have fled high tax
California for tax friendly Georgia.

Filmed in tax friendly Canada.

Filmed in tax friendly New Mexico.
The filmmakers had originally intended to begin filming on in Budapest or Australia, but a 25 percent tax rebate and absence of an interest rate cap and floor made the filmmakers seek the cheaper New Mexico.

Filmed in tax friendly Georgia.

Democrats rape Calif. taxpayers with more taxes

Taxes, Taxes & More Taxes

- - - Democrats keep finding new ways to screw people over with new taxes & the idiot voters keep re-electing them.


Socialist Big Government Democrat Los Angeles County is now ramming brand new taxes up the rear of the Sheeple voters of California.

You Sheeple deserve the new taxes.  You elected the SOBs in the first place.

L.A. County has ventured into the "progressive" world of toll roads by opening of 14 miles of express lanes on the San Bernardino Freeway — the second project of its type to begin operation in the region since November.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority opened the road drivers to travel the 10 Freeway's new high occupancy toll lanes — so-called HOT lanes — between Interstate 605 in El Monte and Alameda Street in downtown Los Angeles.

"This shows we are willing to address traffic, gridlock and congestion in the region," said Leftist Democrats nutcase Los Angeles Mayor and MTA board member Antonio Villaraigosa at a dedication ceremony in El Monte. "Other cities are going to do this across the county. We are going to see smarter use of highways."

TRANSLATION  -  Other cities are fucking the voters with new taxes so L.A. should do it too.

The two westbound and two eastbound "Metro ExpressLanes" will be open to solo motorists who pay a toll, but they will be free for cars carrying at least two passengers reports the Los Angeles Times.

During peak travel times politically correct carpools of three or more people will be able to use the lanes without paying the taxes others must pay. Van pools and motorcyclists also can enter the lanes toll free.

 

Using congestion pricing, motorists will pay anywhere from $0.25 a mile during off-peak periods to $1.40 a mile during the height of rush hour. MTA officials estimate that the average one-way cost should range between $4 and $7.

Setting tolls based on the volume of traffic is designed to maintain speeds of no less than 45 mph in the lanes.  Bull.  tolls are based on screwing people out of the money.

Motorists interested in the express lanes must open a FasTrak account with the MTA and make a $40 deposit to obtain a transponder, an electronic device that automatically bills their accounts whenever the lanes are used. Drivers can adjust the transponder to show how many people are in the vehicle, so the charges can be adjusted.

Bend over and pay more taxes to the
Socialist State for the right to drive on the road
that your other taxes already pay for.

The county marked its entry into the use of tollways on Nov. 10, when the MTA opened its first express lanes along 11 miles of the Harbor Freeway between Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles and the Harbor Gateway Transit Center in the South Bay.

The lanes on both freeways are part of a $210-million demonstration project funded largely by the federal government.

It includes upgrading transit and rail stations, 59 new clean-fuel buses, the $60-million El Monte Bus Station, highway ramp improvements and 100 new vanpools.

MTA officials said the express lanes on the 10 and 110 will cost $7 million to $10 million a year to operate, but should generate $18 million to $20 million in revenue, money. So far, more than 100,000 people have obtained transponders for the lanes, officials said.

Teacher's union endorses racist for city council

Communism and Racism  -  Los Angeles Teacher's Union shows what they really believe by endorsing a racist Socialist



LOS ANGELES – United Teachers Los Angeles made a bold and revealing statement about its radical political principles when the union endorsed Ron Gochez for L.A. City Council this month.

The endorsement is significant for a couple of reasons.

First, Gochez is an extreme left-wing L.A. teacher known for racist, anti-American rants. He also has decades-long ties to the African People’s Socialist Party – which is very open and passionate about its hated of Jews, whites, Barack Obama, Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson, Koreans – basically everyone.

Second, the UTLA didn’t have to endorse him. The union’s leaders wanted to.

There are 12 candidates running for one position, but the UTLA endorsed two: Gochez and State Sen. Curren Price, who is much more likely to win, according to California Political News.

That leads many to believe the union’s support for Gochez is more about ideology than anything else.
“Price is much more likely to win; the Gochez endorsement was issued as a statement. The UTLA likes him, it agrees with him, it approves of him,” the political website opined. “It’s a symbolic endorsement; he’s the man the UTLA truly likes, even if Price is the more likely victor.”

Gochez is a very active member of the above-mentioned APSP. He has appeared on the organization’s behalf on television, promoted its events and helped launch the group’s “Black is Back” coalition, which also endorsed him in the city council race, California Political News reports.

This is what APSP believes, based what California Political News found in the group’s publications and public appearances:

The People's City Hall in Los Angeles.

Barack Hussein Obama is a “traitor,” “motherf—-r,” “boot-licking n—-r” who needs someone to “whup his ass.”

How do they really feel? Obama “is the enemy.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu should “die” for being “on the side of the oppressor” by “running around saying, ‘Oh, please stop killing each other…’”

Martin Luther King Jr. was a “negro” leading black people “back onto the plantation in a way that was advantageous to white liberals and the black petty bourgeoisie.”

In Philadelphia, every shopping area is controlled by “Korean merchants and the sell-out Latino store owners who greedily suck the resources from the community daily …”

Jessie Jackson is an “old Uncle Tom n—-r” because of work he did in North Carolina when “he went and worked with those honkies down there …”

Holocaust numbers are fictitious: “They say nothing has happened as bad as what happened to those white people, and that’s why it’s got to be six million. If they could make it 40 million, they’d make it 40 million that died there because they need those dead Jews to hold up in the face of any Africans and other oppressed people around the world who say look what you did to me.”

So what’s the bottom line? The union’s support of Gochez means it’s aligned ideologically with the APSP. And that certainly erodes its carefully crafted image as an organization focused on education and children.

“For years, whenever anyone has tried to curb the power of the teachers union in California, the union would respond by running TV ads featuring fresh-faced, multiethnic children as a kindly voiceover actor implores people to ‘think of the children,’ the website says.

“Well, the next time anyone challenges the UTLA, think of Ron Gochez. Think of the fact that the union chose to back him. And think of what that says about the UTLA.”

From eagnews.org  and  Countercontempt.com

California government skims millions from accounts



Of Obesity, Bridges and Peanuts

By Jon Coupal

Have California school officials found their own bizarre way to support Michelle Obama’s campaign against childhood obesity? What else could possibly explain their skimming of at least $170 million -- and possibly much more -- from federal funds supplied to provide nutritional lunches to the state’s poorest children? The just-released findings by state auditors show the biggest offender is the Los Angeles Unified School District, having misappropriated $158 million. For LAUSD observers this comes as small surprise considering the district’s abysmal record of managing its funds.

A trustee for Santa Ana Unified School district, which has been ordered to repay $2.7 million to the Student Meal Fund, tried to excuse his district’s action by saying,“If the law was as simple as, you can do this or you can’t, we would understand it.” The comment is a reminder of the huge disconnect between many government officials and the general public. Most regular folks understand that it is wrong to take food from hungry children without having to be told -- the few who don’t appreciate the difference between right and wrong usually end up being sent to prison.
.

While we are looking at skimming, it has recently been revealed that Cal Fire has been hiding $3.6 million. Incidentally, this is the same agency that is imposing an illegal fire tax over which the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has filed a class action lawsuit. This latest revelation comes on the heels of the State Parks Department scandal involving $54 million in hidden funds. When officials are interviewed they reveal the tendency to hide extra money is the result of their fear that if the word gets out that they are flush with cash, Sacramento lawmakers will cut their budget. After all, where would these bureaucrats be if the extra money were spent on other needy programs or, heaven forbid, returned to taxpayers?

To “skimming” and “hiding”let’s add outright waste. A shining example is the $10 million dollar contract Caltrans signed with a public relations firm on behalf of -- wait for it -- a bridge! That’s right, a state agency was hiring spin doctors to put the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the best possible light. (What, like commuters have a choice with some competing bridge?) Looks like it is embarrassed Caltrans officials, who cancelled the contract when it became public late last year, who now need a PR makeover.

There are always those close to government who downgrade the importance of government waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer money when confronted with examples that amount to only a matter of millions, not billions of dollars. Governor Brown stated that he found the story regarding Cal Fire’s hiding money to be “boring.” Even more telling was the comment by a governor some years ago when at a meeting, the subject of a wasteful program that amounted to close to $20 million was raised. “It’s peanuts,” he responded. The problem is there is evidence that there are boxcar loads of these“peanuts” for which every Californian is paying.

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association -- California's largest grass-roots taxpayer organization dedicated to the protection of Proposition 13 and the advancement of taxpayers' rights.

To read this column on the HJTA website, please click here.

Caltrans ads seek more Amtrak riders - Bullet Train moves forward

California Amtrak ridership drops  -  But insane spending for a new Bullet Train goes on and on


Just weeks after People's Republic Governor Jerry Brown's office quashed a $10 million public relations contract to promote the new Bay Bridge span, Caltrans is preparing to spend $9 million for a PR firm to sell people on riding trains.

"Advertising for Amtrak increases the number of riders and raises revenue for the state," said Caltrans spokesman Matt Rocco.

Caltrans has tentatively picked an outfit called Tmdgroup for a three-year campaign intended to boost ridership on three Amtrak routes in the state, including the Capitol Corridor line from San Jose to Auburn  in Placer County. reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

The firm will also develop a track-crossing safety program.

Rocco said state taxpayers are already subsidizing Amtrak service in California to the tune of $90 million a year. Amtrak carries almost 5.6 million passengers in the state annually, but ridership on some lines has dipped - hence the need to sell the system.

By the way, Tmdgroup boasts on its Web page that it handles only government contracts and specializes in "motivating positive behavioral change."

Amtrak Rail Map.
California already has a rail system in place.
But leaving the current system in place means
there is no new tax money to steal when building
a new high speed rail.

Texas: Interest from California companies ‘double or triple’

Relocating to Austin, Texas
California tax increases prompt businesses to ask about moving

• Is California Governor Jerry Brown on the payroll of the Austin Chamber of Commerce? 

Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce officials, who sent a representative on Gov. Rick Perry’s recent California recruiting trip, report a spike in Golden State companies inquiring about relocating to Central Texas.

Californians seem responsive to Texas’ low tax message, especially since the most recent state election in November, when income and sales taxes increases were approved by California’s voters in a measure called Proposition 30.

“We have had a spike of double or triple the amount of normal (business relocation) activity since the November election in California,” said Dave Porter, senior vice president for economic development at the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce reports the Austin Statesman.

Austin’s latest business recruit from California was Visa Inc., which decided in December to create nearly 800 technology jobs here over the next five years. Visa will receive $1.6 million in city of Austin incentives and another $7.9 million from the state’s Texas Enterprise Fund to create a “global information center” at 12301 Research Blvd.

The Austin chamber regularly recruits in California, sending about eight delegations of chamber members a year to talk with various business prospects in that state.

Many California tech companies are familiar with Austin because of its existing tech community, the presence of the University of Texas at Austin and the local tech workforce.

Now, with the California tax hikes, Porter said, the chamber is getting inquiries and visits from high-tech executives who are considering relocating their headquarters operations out of California to avoid that state’s income taxes.

“We have had tons of prospects and inquiries from California,” Porter said. “And the common theme is: the sooner (the move out of California) the better.”

Other states, including Nevada and Michigan, also are competing for relocation projects from California, and they are actively offering tax incentives.

Austin, Texas
Plan your trip today and visit the city where your job is going.

Why is Jerry Brown not bringing Texas jobs to California?

Jerry Brown's dog Sutter could run the state better.

Jerry Brown's pure 100% Socialist Bullshit

• You don't see Jerry Brown visiting Texas to bring jobs to California.  Because no businessman in his right mind would deliberately open a brand new business in Taxafornia.
• The People's Republic of California is living off the businesses started in past decades.

Socialist Democrat California Governor Jerry Brown insulted Texas Governor Rick Perry's effort to take jobs out of the once Golden State.  Brown told reporters that Perry’s effort wasn’t news. “It’s not a burp,” he sneered. “It’s barely a fart.”  Ha, ha.  Funny.

But none of the brainless lib reporters have the balls to ask our Comrade Governor why he isn't in Texas bringing those jobs back to California. 

The answer is obvious.  No business in the no income tax states of Texas or Florida or Nevada would even think of relocating to Socialist high tax California.

In the last five years Texas has gained 400,000 new jobs while California has lost 640,000. The Lone Star State’s rate of job growth was 33 percent higher than California’s last year, even as the Golden State finally pulled out of the recession.

Joseph Vranich, a California business-relocation expert, agrees that California has a systemic job-creation problem and says it needs to worry about more than just Texas. He says that 15 states are sending delegations to California and seeking to convince firms to relocate or, if they stay in California, to expand their operations out of state.

Austin, Texas
To hear Californians talk you would think everyone in Texas is an uneducated redneck.  After all, only a "crazy" person would open a business in an "uncivilized" place like Texas where they do not have to pay insane California Marxist income taxes. 

Wealthy individuals such as golfer Phil Mickelson are openly talking about following Tiger Woods and moving to low-tax states such as Florida. EBay, Facebook, and Visa, among others, have recently made major expansions in Texas. “That kind of talk will only intensify now that top earners in California face a 13.3 percent income-tax hit on earnings over $1 million,” says Jon Fleischman, editor of the political blog FlashReport.com. “That’s not only the highest rate in the U.S. It’s the highest rate any state has had since World War II.”

Should Perry choose to run for a fourth term as governor next year, he will have a good story to tell. Texas’s legislature has just trimmed its $188 billion two-year budget by 8 percent, and the state may have more revenue than it can legally spend because it is barred from raising outlays more than the rate of economic growth.

“This state is foremost geared to fostering a business climate that creates jobs,” Governor Perry said last year. “We can do more good in other areas if first we ensure people can support and raise their families.”

(National Review)

Let us not forget those Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
Yep, I see nothing attractive at all about Texas.

And then there is the Texas BBQ.

The many flags of Texas

Does the California Republican Party even matter?

A New California GOP Chairman?
Jim Brulte

Brulte for GOP Chairman?

- - - I mean really, does anyone even give a crap about these worthless recycled political hacks?


Former State Senator Jim Brulte announced at a meeting of Republican activists in San Diego that he was officially a candidate to become California GOP chairman.

Brulte represented part of San Bernardino County when he was the Senate Republican leader from 2000 to 2004 and Assembly Republican leader from 1992 to 1996.




THE  BOTTOM  LINE  -  Let's get right to the meat.  The California Republican Party does not represent me or any other Republican in the state.  In fact the state GOP does not represent anyone except a bunch of corrupt Sacramento insiders.

The average Republican voter has zero voice in the state Republican Party.  ZERO!

There are no local caucuses or county conventions where Republican voters can select delegates to a state convention to vote on a platform and elect leaders like we see in the Iowa Presidential primary.

The state GOP is a top-down appointed Sacramento based political action committee fully funded by lobbyists often looking to loot the treasury for their own ends.  There is no input from average GOP voters of any kind, in any way.

This top-down corrupt oligarchy structure explains why GOP legislators have voted with the Socialist Democrats to increase taxes and grow the Welfare State.

For example it was just a few months ago that Assembly Republican Caucus Chairman Brian Nestande provided the needed swing vote to raise sales taxes on lumber by 1%.

Republicans are told we are supposed to care.  I say, fuck that shit.

When I am allowed to vote for the leadership of my party, at that point I will care.



What exactly is the Republican Party?
Under GOP Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and his GOP allies in the legislature, spending not only went insane, but Republican legislators signed on to tax increases.
.
Now Jim Brulte, who was GOP Senate leader under the madness of insane tax and spend Arnold, wants to "rebuild" the Republican Party that he fucked over.  Right. 

Democrats now have supermajorities of more than two-thirds in both houses of the Legislature, dominate the state's congressional delegation by a 38-15 count and hold every statewide office, including the two U.S. Senate seats.

Brulte claims has the priorities of increasing fundraising, recruiting many more grass-roots volunteers than the party recently has and "rebuilding the party's bench" by recruiting candidates for legislative and local races who have a chance to win because they "look like, sound like and share the values of the people in their neighborhoods."

Brulte says his projected rebuild has immediate potential for bettering the GOP's electoral fortunes with or without changes on any issues. 

 "We lost three or four seats where the outcome really hinged on nuts and bolts," he said, citing several legislative races decided by fewer than 2,000 votes each.    But election returns reveal that the GOP won almost as many very tight races as it lost, one example being the 1,018-vote margin by which Republican Assemblyman Mike Morrell beat Democrat Russ Warner in a far-flung San Bernardino County district.  
The same returns show Democrats won by wide margins in most races, indicating that merely fixing nuts and bolts won't bring Republicans near parity anytime soon.

 

(Pasadena Star News)

Democrats to force gun owners to buy insurance

Gun Grabbing Whore State Assemblyman Philip Ting
(Communist - San Francisco)

Democrats are coming for your guns, your money and your freedom

• Democrats use a back door attack on your 2nd Amendment gun ownership rights.  They will FORCE you to buy insurance before being able to purchase a weapon to protect yourself.
• If you fail to buy insurance on your property then you become the criminal.

Scumbag Socialist Democratic lawmakers proposed legislation Tuesday that would require California gun owners to buy liability insurance to cover damages or injuries caused by their weapons.  (Naturally the contributions these bastards get from the corrupt insurance industry did not enter their minds.)

Similar bills have been introduced in other states after the Newtown, Conn., school massacre. They include Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New York.

State Assemblywhore Philip Ting of San Francisco, who introduced AB231 along with Assemblywhore Jimmy Gomez of Los Angeles said, "There's basically a cost that is born by the taxpayers when accidents occur. ... I don't think that taxpayers should be footing those bills."

Ting equated the idea to requiring vehicle owners to buy auto insurance. Gomez said it would encourage gun owners to take firearms safety classes and keep their guns locked up to get lower insurance rates.

No state has enacted the requirement despite repeated previous attempts, said Jon Griffin, a policy analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Bills have been offered unsuccessfully in Massachusetts and New York since at least 2003, when the conference began keeping track, he said. Similar bills were proposed in Illinois in 2009 and in Pennsylvania last year. Lawmakers are introducing the bills this year in even more states after the recent shootings.

Some proposals would require buyers to show proof of insurance before they could purchase a weapon. The proposal in California would apply to anyone owning a weapon, Ting said, though the bill's details are still being worked out.

Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, said most gun owners already act responsibly and can be sued for damages if they don't.

He said the proposal is part of an ongoing attempt to "price gun owners out of existence," particularly the law-abiding poor who live in crime-ridden areas and need protection the most. Criminals would ignore the law, he said.


Charlton Heston  - From My Cold Dead Hands.

Moreover, he questioned whether it is constitutional to require someone to buy insurance to exercise a constitutional right.

"If they don't address it in committee, I'll guarantee they'll have to address it in court," Paredes said.

Ting said he and Gomez plan to work with gun owners and opponents to craft a constitutional bill. It will not require insurance companies to offer gun insurance, but will encourage them to enter the market.

He noted that the National Rifle Association itself already offers its members the chance to buy liability insurance, despite its opposition to requiring gun owners to buy such policies.

Ting also introduced AB232, which would give a state income-tax credit of up to $1,000 to anyone who turns in a firearm to a local gun buyback program. The amount of the credit would be determined based on the value of the weapon.

Read more: (Fox News)

From my cold dead hands.

San Diego takes down fascist red light cameras



Democrat Mayor Bob Filner hauls off a red-light camera warning sign

SHOCK  -  A Democrat Mayor makes an intelligent, common sense decision for freedom and against Big Brother

• Anything is possible.  Dog and cats could start living together.  Pigs might even fly.

 

San Diego on Friday became the latest in a cadre of California cities turning their backs on red-light cameras — aloof intersection sentries that have prompted $490 tickets to be mailed to 20,000 motorists per year here.

 

Mayor Bob Filner announced his decision to take down the city’s 21 cameras at a news conference set at the most prolific intersection for the tickets, North Harbor Drive and West Grape Street, near San Diego International Airport.

 

 

A crew went to work immediately taking down “photo enforced” signs throughout the city reports the San Diego Union-Tribune.

 

“Seems to me that such a program can only be justified if there are demonstrable facts that prove that they raise the safety awareness and decrease accidents in our city,” Filner said of the cameras. “The data, in fact, does not really prove it.”

 

Bicycle and pedestrian groups immediately raised safety concerns about the end of the program. Still, Filner called it the San Diego version of a traffic trap, and said he would rather have the four officers who were reviewing the camera’s photos back on the streets interacting directly with motorists.

 

“It just seemed to me that the hostility toward them (the cameras) bred more disrespect for the law than respect for the law,” Filner said, adding that many members of the public felt the program was only about making the city money.

 

The mayor’s action followed through on a campaign promise made last fall in response to a question from The Watchdog, which surveyed candidates about the program.

 

San Diego Red Light Cameras Ordered to Be Torn Down by Mayor

Goodbye to the 1984 Big Brother
Spy Cameras.

San Diego biotechs targeted by Texas Governor

Kicking Socialist Democrats in the Nads
Texas Governor tells California businessmen about the wonders of Texas, a state with no income tax and reasonable regulations

• A dirty little Socialist secret  -  States like Texas, Washington, Florida, Alaska and Tennessee get along just fine without a Marxist personal income tax.

Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry quietly came to San Diego last week to lure biotech companies seeking to escape from higher income taxes under Proposition 30 to the Lone Star State.
 

It wasn’t his first trip, either.

 

Perry visited with executives from several large medical device companies, said Mark Cafferty, chief executive of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. Perry talked to the companies about the benefits of relocating to Texas, a state with no corporate income tax, relaxed environmental regulations and reduced land costs, Cafferty said.

 

“(Perry) certainly was here. He certainly met with CEOs of companies within San Diego, seemingly with a heavy emphasis on the biotech industry,” Cafferty said. “Our region has a target on our back. And people are coming in very charismatic to lure jobs away. While we do the best we can locally at EDC, we need state leadership to fight back.”

 

A spokeswoman for Perry’s office would not confirm his visit in voicemails Wednesday, but said that Perry often visits other states to court employers reports the San Diego Union Tribune.

 

“We are always looking to reach out to companies who might be interested in moving or expanding,” she said. “We’re always trying to tell the Texas story of low taxes and reasonable regulations.”

Perry also visited California in December to court employers, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

 

That visit came a month after voters in California approved Proposition 30, which raised the income tax rate for earners making more than $250,000 and added a quarter cent to the sales tax. In California, large corporations other than financial companies pay 8.84 percent in corporate taxes.

 

When Perry returned to Texas in December, he told a tea party rally in Tarrant County why he made the trip to San Diego.

 .

“The passage of Proposition 30 in California this last November, which raised their tax rate substantially on businessmen and woman, has made California a target-rich environment for pro-business, low-tax, fair and predictable regulatory states,” he said.

 .

One target for Perry appears to be ResMed, a San Diego manufacturer of sleeping devices.
 

“Gov. Perry was in San Diego in December and visited with a few members of our executive team for about 30 minutes. There wasn’t an offer on the table. It was more of a fact-finding mission to learn about ResMed’s concerns,” company spokeswoman Gretchen Griswold said Wednesday.

 

Peter Farrell, ResMed’s CEO, made some pointed comments on California’s business climate at the time.
 

 

“The whole place is very Democratic, very union-friendly and tax-unfriendly,” Farrell said. “And we just see the costs going up, and the benefits going down. We see more regulation and more taxes, and more of an anti-business kind of environment.”

 

He went on to say, “The unemployment rate in Texas is 7 percent; we’re over 10 percent. Surely they must realize that the policies here are incredibly negative ... They’re just anti-growth.”

 

Life Technologies spokeswoman Patty Zamora said the company already has operations in Texas, but could have even more in the future.

 

“Life Technologies currently has facilities in Austin and Houston,” she said. “We have invested in these facilities in the past and would consider doing so again as necessary to support our on-going business.”

In an interview that aired on Fox Business on Jan. 23, Aaron McLear, a former spokesman to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said that Perry is known for courting companies in California.

 

“Gov. Perry in Texas is famous for going on hunting trips to California, where he goes and meets with CEOs, and gives them his cell phone (number),” McLear said. “(Perry) says here’s my personal number. Call me anytime, tell me what I can do to attract you to Texas.”