"The state of California lost Toyota" says angry mayor



Torrance Mayor Frank Scotto

Driving Jobs Out of California

Toyota's announcement Monday that it is moving its U.S. headquarters from Torrance to Texas comes as a major blow not just to this manicured city south of Los Angeles but also to the larger region, which has watched a number of major employers walk away in recent years.

Torrance Mayor Frank Scotto reacted with frustration at the latest news and said, as a city of 100,000, Torrance could not compete with the economic incentives and favorable business climate in Texas reports the Houston Chronicle.

 

"The state of California lost Toyota," Scotto said on Tuesday.

 

He pointed to a number of issues in the Golden State that negatively affect companies' bottom line: tax structure, workers' compensation and liability insurance.

 

About 3,000 jobs will move to Texas, leaving 2,300 in Southern California. The shift will leave a $1.2 million hole in the city's budget when it is completed in 2017 unless the city finds someone to occupy 101 acres of land that Toyota now uses, Scotto said. He said his own son-in-law works as a chief auditor for Toyota.

 

"There's so many things that have to be done in the state of California," Scotto said after a news conference in front of City Hall. "It's going to take a change in attitude, and you know what, we need to change that attitude today, because 10 years from now when we look back and say, 'Geez, we should have been doing something,' it's going to be way too late."

 

Toyota is just the latest in a chain of automotive and manufacturing companies to leave Southern California, said Nick Vyas, director for the Center for Global Supply Chain Management at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business.

 

In 2006, Nissan North America relocated to Tennessee from Gardena, another Los Angeles suburb, and earlier this year, the bustling port city of Long Beach lost on a bid to build Boeing's new 777X jet at the same time that the company ended production of its C-17 aircraft.

 

Honda Motor Co. also moved its research and development hub to Ohio in recent years.

(CNBC.com)

Honda moves California HQ to Ohio
Honda moved its North American leadership from California to a major factory campus in Ohio.
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The Japanese automaker moved 50 leadership and support jobs to Marysville, Ohio, near Columbus.  Honda also said it would form a new services company based in Marysville (not in California).  (Finance.yahoo)