![]() ![]() Our study uses 15 pro-growth attributes to rank the states’ economic competitiveness. The upcoming fifth edition of Rich States, Poor States, a publication that I coauthor annually with Stephen Moore and Jonathan Williams, will show just how antigrowth California’s business environment is. Such a reform would spur a renewal of economic activity and investment while continuing to raise the revenues that the state needs. ![]() What California needs is a radical tax overhaul-to be precise, a single, low-rate flat tax. Economies don’t tax themselves into prosperity. ![]() Tax hikes, especially during trying economic times like these, make no sense. ![]() Yet the state’s Democratic leadership is pushing a November ballot measure aimed at raising income and sales taxes in order to make up for lost revenue. California’s after-tax rate of return for doing business lags so far behind other states’ (especially zero-income-tax competitors such as Texas, Tennessee, and Florida) that the exodus shouldn’t surprise anyone. Firms, people, investments, and tax revenues are fleeing California, repelled by the most onerous antigrowth business environment in the United States. The last thing California needed was more government spending. Clearly, he had resolved to move in a big-government direction, making proposals that included issuing billions of dollars’ worth of new bonds to pay for statewide infrastructure projects. I’d been disappointed in November by the defeat of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ballot initiatives, which aimed at reining in state spending, but I was utterly aghast as I read the transcript of the governor’s State of the State speech just days into the new year. I still remember decision day: January 5, 2006. That’s a major undertaking for anyone, but particularly for a 25-year resident of Southern California, dragging his whole family and company along with him. Six years ago, I decided to leave Rancho Santa Fe, California, for Nashville, Tennessee. ![]()
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