California hasn’t changed much in quite a few years. Voters put the dominant party back in power in November’s elections while businesses continue to flee the state. What’s different, though, is the pace of the commercial outflow has picked up.
Departures have been ongoing for more than a decade. Businesses are broken and beaten by high taxes, strangling regulations, exorbitant and unnecessary fees and permits, steep energy costs, a crumbling infrastructure — and the feeling that they’re just not welcome. Between 2008 and 2016, there were at least 13,000 business “disinvestment events” across California.
Since then, the rush to get out has accelerated. A new study from the Hoover Institution and Spectrum Relocation Solutions found that 153 California companies moved their headquarters out of California in 2021 and 352 have left since 2018.
Rush to get out of California is accelerating
Kerry Jackson
California hasn’t changed much in quite a few years. Voters put the dominant party back in power in November’s elections while businesses continue to flee the state. What’s different, though, is the pace of the commercial outflow has picked up.
Departures have been ongoing for more than a decade. Businesses are broken and beaten by high taxes, strangling regulations, exorbitant and unnecessary fees and permits, steep energy costs, a crumbling infrastructure — and the feeling that they’re just not welcome. Between 2008 and 2016, there were at least 13,000 business “disinvestment events” across California.
Since then, the rush to get out has accelerated. A new study from the Hoover Institution and Spectrum Relocation Solutions found that 153 California companies moved their headquarters out of California in 2021 and 352 have left since 2018.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.