Anti-Business: Texas Gov. Rick Perry keeps coming back to California to lure companies to the income-tax-free Lone Star State. Apparently he's succeeding.
Toyota Motor Corp. will relocate "substantial parts" of its U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif., to suburban Dallas. The impetus for the move: cutting costs. This could lead to as many as 5,000 jobs transplanted from California to Big D, as they call it in Texas. This is the 50th major employer to make the trek to the Lone Star State from California this year alone.
Toyota, the world's largest auto producer, isn't saying so, but no doubt taxes are a big source of the savings from packing up and moving. California has the highest income tax in the country, with a top rate of 13%, compared with zero in Texas. For a company with thousands of workers, many with high salaries, this can mean tens of millions of dollars each and every year in cost savings to Toyota and its employees.
It's not just taxes, but also a regulatory structure in California that treats businesses, especially manufacturers, like enemy combatants. Joseph Vranich, a California-based business relocation adviser, who has long tracked the migration of companies from California, cites more than 250 major firms that left the state since 2011 through last year.
Why? "Today," he said, "California businesses can reduce costs by 20% by moving to many states and up to 45% in some areas." One big cost factor: California's green-energy mandates are driving up electric utility costs to near the highest in the nation.
When Perry was asked why he keeps traveling to California, he recently quipped:
"You fish where the fish are."
Well, he just reeled in another whopper.
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