Patterico's Pontifications

4/28/2014

Toyota Moving from California to Texas

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:37 am



This is a real blow to the local economy:

Toyota Motor Corp. plans to move large numbers of jobs from its sales and marketing headquarters in Torrance to suburban Dallas, according to a person familiar with the automaker’s plans.

. . . .

Occidental Petroleum Corp. said in February that it was relocating from Los Angeles to Houston, making it one of around 60 companies that have moved to Texas since July 2012, according to Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Perry last month visited California to recruit companies. The group Americans for Economic Freedom also recently launched a $300,000 advertising campaign in which Perry contends 50 California companies have plans to expand or relocate in Texas because it offers a better business climate.

Like these other companies, Toyota could also save money in an environment of lower business taxes, real estate prices and cost of living.

Frank Scotto, Torrance’s mayor, said he had no warning of Toyota’s decision. He said he did know that the automaker planned a corporate announcement for Monday.

“When any major corporation is courted by another state, it’s very difficult to combat that,” Scotto said. “We don’t have the tools we need to keep major corporations here.”

The mayor said businesses bear higher costs in California for workers’ compensation and liability insurance, among other expenses.

This marks the second departure of a major auto company in a decade:

Toyota isn’t the first automaker to leave Southern California. In late 2005, Nissan announced it was moving its North American headquarters from Gardena to Franklin, Tenn., just outside of Nashville. About 550 employees left for Tennessee; an additional 750 left jobs at Nissan to stay in Southern California.

“The costs of doing business in Southern California are much higher than the costs of doing business in Tennessee,” Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said at the time. He cited cheaper real estate and lower business taxes as key reasons for the move.

You might think “business writer” Michael Hiltzik would be writing about the departure of a local business headquarters employing thousands of workers. But the clear solutions — lower business taxes, lower workers’ compensation costs, and the like — don’t fit his ultra-left world view. So today, his “business” column focuses on racist comments made by Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling, giving us a glimpse of the “dirty laundry” in this woefully undercovered story.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s the worst thing about California: the ridiculous regulation, or the crappy media. My conclusion: they’re both the worst.

53 Responses to “Toyota Moving from California to Texas”

  1. at least we’ll have high speed rail, any day now!

    \/\/00T!

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  2. Hiltzik is the worst of the worst. His sock puppets were smarter.

    Mike K (cd7278)

  3. “Hiltzik is the worst of the worst. His sock puppets were smarter.”

    How is that possible? I coined a word for the phenomenon that allows for this: countercompetent.

    (I work in government, so I get to use it a lot!)

    Countercompetent refers to a person that in a given situation somehow always manages to do the polar opposite of what is optimal.

    An incompetent, in contrast, just doesn’t do the optimal thing in most cases, not its polar opposite.

    And then there is the stopped clock that is right twice a day (or once if a military clock… military thinking is bookbound so tends to be right less often!)

    Hiltzik is countercompetent. His sock puppets are designed to be not quite him, so they have to be right more often since it’s impossible to be less right and they are not exactly him!

    Dan S (00fc90)

  4. No, the LAT is in favor of lower taxes for only one category of corporations: the movie studios. Because movies are all leftist cool.

    The destruction of the middle class in CA continues. All that will be left are the rich Malibu environmentalists one day, and that’s exactly what they want.

    Patricia (be0117)

  5. Hey the job that I lost in 2008 moved to Dallas, not the last good job I had but the one I was happy with.

    This is just an opportunity for over-worked Failifornians to enjoy funemployment in the Nation’s playpen.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  6. It’s only a matter of time until the next great thing in the transportation industry in CA will be hitching posts, and diapers for horses.

    askeptic (8ecc78)

  7. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s the worst thing about California: the ridiculous regulation, or the crappy media. My conclusion: they’re both the worst.

    Is Jackie Johnson still doing local weather? That’s some quality media. Also, Flip Spiceland?

    carlitos (e7c734)

  8. Why doesn’t California use part of it’s “SURPLUS” to get Toyota to stay /sarcasm

    Neo (d1c681)

  9. What took them so long?

    J.P. (bd0246)

  10. The LA Times business columnists are a near-perfect window into the California business climate. To hear them tell it, businesses are all run by greedy, racist, misogynist eco-criminals who stay up all night figuring out new ways to cheat the noble consumer.

    I am so voting for Six Californias.

    Kevin M (b11279)

  11. 6 Failifornias would just mean that many moar Boxershorts/Fineswine clones in the Senate.

    two morons from here is enough, thankyouverymuch.

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  12. Did Hitzlik mention that Sterling is a liberal?

    JD (fb8613)

  13. Sterling sounds very conservative when he says that all his players owe him for giving them good jobs.

    He’s not liberal. He is cynical.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  14. “Countercompetent” is a pretty excellent word, Dan S. I may be using it (with full attribution, of course) from time to time.

    I wonder if the loss of Toyota has led Jerry Brown to conclude that a Texas fart may be small, but can still carry a giant stink.

    JVW (9946b6)

  15. Barely a fart. BARELY A FART!

    /stamps feet

    Edmund Gerald Brown, Jr. (341ca0)

  16. When you look at all the natural advantages Kali has it’s proof positive that socialism is destined to fail where ever it’s tried.

    Steve57 (525198)

  17. carlitos, Jackie is still fronting the weather as only she can (KCBS-2)

    askeptic (8ecc78)

  18. Crossposted @ CA Political Review:

    Remember those glory days (I would mark the start as when Henry-I opened his Model-T assy plant in Wilmington across the channel from Terminal Island) when Ford, GM, and Chrysler all had plants in CA (GM had three, Ford two, and Chrysler one?
    And now, they’re all gone, and even the North American HQ’s of the Asiatic transplants are slowly moving out to more friendly climes.
    Honda: Gone to Ohio.
    Nissan: Gone to Tennessee.
    Toyota: Gone to Texas.
    Subaru: Gone to New Jersey.
    Mitsubishi, currently in Cypress….
    Mazda, currently in Irvine….
    Hyundai/Kia, currently in Irvine but with major centers in MI….
    The home of the nation’s Car Culture has become a Hostile Environment for that culture.
    I am reminded of that line in “The Hunt for Red October” when Capt. Tupolev has set his torpedo safeties to zero, is bested in a game of chicken by Capt. Ramius, and his XO turns to him in response to the sonar-man screaming “Torpedo’s dead ahead” and says:
    “You arrogant ass, you’ve killed us!”
    Congratulations Progressives, and Moonbeam, you ARE Tupolev!

    askeptic (8ecc78)

  19. I’ve been following this guy’s blog, which is illustrative about why Kali is out to screw itself.

    http://www.sloleaks.com/

    NOTE – The posts in SLOLeaks.com are in chronological order. To see the latest posts choose the current month link under “Archives” on the right panel. I also have a Summary of the most important events here.

    I actually started this blog in February 2011. I wish I had started back in August 2009 when Judi and I first decided to build a new house. But since August 2009 I kept every email, every letter, every report, and every drawing so I have been able to recreate all that happened. I also used the California Public Records Act to try to get all its relevant emails from the San Luis Obispo County Planning Department. From here on I will post things as they happen – because after over two five years of effort I am still far, far away from securing my permit.

    To someone who doesn’t live in San Luis Obispo County (SLO) all of this must seem crazy. After all, how much more difficult could it be to get a building permit in SLO than the rest of the state, or the country? The answer is, sadly, a lot more difficult…

    I would nominate this guy for sainthood because despite it all he refuses to attribute ill intent to his tormenters.

    Anyhoo, he partially threw up his hands and moved his start-up to Tejas and recently had this to say on his blog:

    My personal experience is that Texas just works. Coming for California I am struck by how efficient government services are, how much the economy is booming, and how matter of fact the optimism is. Everyone here in Austin expects that the city will grow, that new freeways will be built, and that the future will be better. Texas feels like it is the future.

    Some personal anecdotes:

    We rented a house to live in until Judi and I learn the city well enough to know the neighborhood we want to buy a house in. The real estate agents told me that I had to move fast on filling out the rental application because most good rentals go in a day or two.

    When I got my Texas Drivers License I had to go to the Dept. of Public Safety twice because I forgot some paperwork. Total time spent in line was less than 1 minute. And the staff was very nice and helpful.

    When I registered my truck in Texas the clerk there told me that she had worked at that job for 16 years and EVERY single day she worked she had registered someone moving in from California.

    We had to get a permit to double the size of our office and due the tenant improvements. The permit was issued over the counter and within a few minutes…

    There’s a reason why this guy moving his business from Kali to Tejas is marveling at that last bit of minutia. Because in Kali that would be a freakin’ miracle. You’d be talking weeks or months. But over the counter and within a few minutes? That’s head ‘splodin’ territory.

    I’m not really all that entertained about what you’re doing to yourself, Kali. Wish you would stop.

    Steve57 (525198)

  20. and it’s not just the automotive industry that we’re losing.

    http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/19/california-dairy-farmers-tired-of-getting-milked/

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  21. Not to mention the hot sauce guy. He will move, too .

    Mike K (cd7278)

  22. the events in Irwindale are beyond stupid, even by #Failifornia standards:

    the city actively recruited his business, giving various incentives for him to move, and now they want to shut him down. according to a local report, the vast majority of the complaints came from just a few houses…

    makes you wonder what blackmail they have on the city council, doesn’t it?

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  23. Well, look on the bright side.

    http://www.ltspecpro.com/Category/34_1/Seconds_Closeouts.aspx

    Cold Steel in Ventura is having a sale.

    And, yeah, hate to break it to you, but we in Tejas are getting the Sriracha guy.

    But focus! Focus, people! Mom needs a machete for Mother’s Day. And Cold Steel is having a sale.

    Steve57 (525198)

  24. Texas better lookout because all those idiots from Cantafordya will vote democrats into office.

    mg (31009b)

  25. You have to love how the “grown-ups” at the LA Times headlined this article: “Toyota to uproot from Southern California, move to ‘macho’ Texas”

    MikeHs (1a2353)

  26. Dan S #3 and JVW #14 – the equivalent term I use for the countercompetents is that they have a negative IQ … they are not just passively idiots (with a low IQ), they are proudly and actively idiots …

    Alastor (e7cb73)

  27. …and talking to them, or reading anything they’ve written, lowers your IQ.

    askeptic (8ecc78)

  28. Dems have the answer to the problem. Being a Democrat is having all the answers, but, none of the solutions….

    Thomas Hazlewood (c57300)

  29. Michael Hiltzik was once suspended by the LA Times for hacking into his colleagues’ private email accounts.
    So we shouldn’t be surprised he’s getting all aroused about an illegally taped telephone call.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  30. 6 Failifornias would just mean that many moar Boxershorts/Fineswine clones in the Senate.

    Red, you usually don’t come off as that ignorant, why now? Clearly you haven;t done a lot of investigation.

    Of the proposed states, one is as Republican as Idaho, two others are historically Republican, two (that I do NOT live in) are hard left, and one is about the same as the state (60/40). The likely result of the 6 Californias is something around 6-6 or 7-5 Dem.

    I would also suggest that breaking up the electoral vote total in California helps the Republicans. It surely cannot hurt.

    Kevin M (b11279)

  31. the events in Irwindale are beyond stupid, even by #Failifornia standards:

    What happened there could have happened nearly anywhere. The city made a deal for this guy to move. Part of the deal was to borrow some construction money from a connected lender at above-market rates. The hot sauce guy decded he’d get cheaper money elsewhere after he had moved in, and the councilman who was getting the kickback was pissed. So, his son and a few friends started making trouble about “the smell.”

    Kevin M (b11279)

  32. By the way, Hiltzig is not the craziest or furthest left LA Times business columnist. That title is held by David Lazarus, who has not met a business he does not hate.

    Kevin M (b11279)

  33. Too bad the political slant of many employees in companies like Toyota isn’t towards the left, or what apparently is the case with a higher portion of the staff of companies in Silicon Valley.

    I don’t know how far down the socio-economic ladder California is going to fall, how extreme things will or may become. I wish I had a crystal ball, but I don’t. Nonetheless, in a way it would be better — should the final results eventually be quite bad, no matter what — if the condition of decline were rapid and extreme instead of slow and meandering.

    It’s sort of like the scenario where a person is facing terminal cancer. It will be more humane for such a person to go out quickly and dramatically instead of dealing with an agonizingly slow, increasingly debilitating, grueling and painful journey down the proverbial toilet (or Mexico-itis).

    A continuous but lethargic decline will be easier for the masses to be oblivious to or ignore, referring to all the knuckle-headed voters throughout California who if downward trends are slow enough, won’t know what hit them. A creeping decline will allow such people to keep buying into the illusion that liberalism and liberal politicians are beautiful, sophisticated and generous.

    Mark (59e5be)

  34. I’ve heard credible rumors that California stalwart Chevron — f/k/a Standard Oil Company of California, and also the successor by merger of Unocal — has already decided at top corporate levels to move to Texas from its present international corporate HQ in San Ramon, CA. Houston and its environs are the logical fit given the company’s existing presence here.

    When I asked a college friend who’s among their petroleum engineering senior staff (a native Texan, but not based here now or for many years), he or she couldn’t confirm or deny it. But my friend has been extremely frustrated with the challenges Chevron and other energy companies face when trying to do business in CA, and he would be very, very happy if the rumor proved true.

    I asked my friend whether such company movements were likely to make Texas less conservative. He thinks not much, if any. Almost by definition, the companies who’re relocating out of California are doing so for a mostly common and overlapping set of reasons. Their employees can see where there bread is buttered, and where they’re being fed crap sandwiches. Energy companies in particular often rotate personnel from place to place, so there are tons of Chevron employees in CA now who were natives of Texas or other oil-patch states that tend more red. Those who make geographic choices on the basis of “progressive values” instead of job opportunity will be disproportionately represented among the employees who decline the transfer.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  35. 33. California could always get out of its (financial) trouble by drilling or allowing drilling for oil and gas in the continental shelf, and fracking.

    They just have to get rid of some of their environmental rules.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  36. Kevin M,I have suspected the hot sauce controversy was political from the start. Something stinks!

    patricia (be0117)

  37. They will just move to my state and turn it into California. Lessons are never learned. Sorry Beldar. Fracking is under assault here. All that matters is the meme.

    Ag80 (eb6ffa)

  38. has already decided at top corporate levels to move to Texas from its present international corporate HQ in San Ramon, CA.

    I’m surprised that company has stuck around the loony-left bin that is the SF Bay Area for as long as it has.

    The only saving grace to that part of California has been its demographics, referring to the fact that if a high enough percentage of a community’s or society’s populace is talented, resourceful and stable, then a pervading nonsensical ideology and a government that reflects that will not be quite as devastating compared with places where the politics are no less idiotic but where too much of the populace also is of middling to high-school-dropout caliber.

    Self-destructive politics combined with doddering demographics are a recipe for interminable downward mobility, if not an outright disaster. And, as the saying goes, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men will not be able to put Humpty back together again.

    Mark (59e5be)

  39. 12. 13. Does this sound like a liberal?

    I support them [his basketball players] and give them food, and clothes, and cars, and houses. Who gives it to them? Does someone else give it to them? Do I know that I have—Who makes the game? Do I make the game, or do they make the game? Is there 30 owners, that created the league?

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  40. Welcome to the Hotel Plano Texas

    such a lovely place

    where you don’t get raped

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  41. Does this sound like a liberal?

    Yep, a “limousine liberal” And, btw, that label applies to most folks on the left, who don’t have to be wealthy to exemplify the disingenuous nature of liberalism. After all, any person who can ingratiate himself with the ultra-liberal, Al-Sharpton-ized NAACP the way Sterling has done for several years sure ain’t a conservative.

    Mark (59e5be)

  42. Speaking of “limousine liberals,” in the total, full meaning of that phrase…..

    Joelkoktin.com, April 25 2014

    Silicon Valley’s biggest names—Google, Apple, Intel and Adobe—reached a settlement today in a contentious $3 billion anti-trust suit brought by workers who accused the tech giants of secretly colluding to not recruit each other’s employees. The workers won, but not much, receiving only a rumored $300 million, a small fraction of the billions the companies might have been forced to pay had they been found guilty in a trial verdict.

    The criminality that the case exposed in the boardrooms the tech giants, including from revered figures like Steve Jobs who comes off as especially ruthless, should not be jarring to anyone familiar with Silicon Valley. It may shock much of the media, who have generally genuflected towards these companies, and much of the public, that has been hoodwinked into thinking the Valley oligarchs represent a better kind of plutocrat—but the truth is they are a lot like the old robber barons.

    [T]he collusion case amply proves what has been clear to those watching the industry: greed and the desire to control drives tech entrepreneurs as much as any other business group. The Valley is great at talking progressive but not so much in practice. In the very place where private opposition to gay marriage is enough to get a tech executive fired, the big firms have shown a very weak record of hiring minorities and women. And not surprisingly, firms also are notoriously skittish about revealing their diversity data. A San Jose Mercury report found that the numbers of Hispanics and African Americans employees in Silicon Valley tech companies, already far below their percentage in the population, has actually been declining in recent years. Hispanics, roughly one quarter of the local labor force, account for barely five percent of those working at the Valley’s ten largest companies. The share of women working at the big tech companies – despite the rise of high profile figures in management—has also showed declines.

    In terms of dealing with “talent,” collusion is not the only way the Valley oligarchs work to keep wages down. Another technique is the outsourcing of labor to lower paid foreign workers, the so called “techno-coolies.” The tech giants claim that they hire cheap workers overseas because of a critical shortage of skilled computer workers but that doesn’t hold up to serious scrutiny. A 2013 report from the labor-aligned Economic Policy Institute found that the country is producing 50% more IT professionals per year than are being employed. Tech firms, notes EPI, would rather hire “guest workers” who now account for one-third to one half of all new IT job holders, largely to maintain both a lower cost and a more pliant workforce.

    It’s critical to understand that the hiring restrictions exposed by Friday’s settlement, reflect only one part of the Valley’s faux progressiveness and real mendacity. These same companies have also been adept at circumventing user privacy and avoiding their tax obligations.

    Mark (59e5be)

  43. Comment by Mark (59e5be) — 4/28/2014 @ 10:55 pm

    After all, any person who can ingratiate himself with the ultra-liberal, Al-Sharpton-ized NAACP the way Sterling has done for several years sure ain’t a conservative.

    Not a principled </B. conservative.

    I also don't think he is a racist. He is a snob, and covets honors.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  44. Not a principled conservative.

    Sammy, your assessment of human nature is spot on.

    BTW, I believe Obama doesn’t have the innate biases of an ultra-liberal and that commentator Pat Buchanan loves blood and violence. Oh, and a guy who doesn’t want his mistress to be seen merely walking around with black people is not a racist.

    Mark (59e5be)

  45. I’ve been in California all my life, and I remember the misery Moonbeam inflicted on us during the 70s. Moonbeam continues to inflict suffering on us with his super majority goonsquads. Rick Perry gave businesses a welcoming invitation to do their business in Texas. However, if Wendy Davis gets voted in as Governor, you can bet she’ll be Moonbeam in Texas, and screw up Texas as well.

    Mr. E. (c216f4)

  46. Comment by Beldar (fa637a) — 4/28/2014 @ 8:18 pm

    I think the writing’s been on the wall ever since Chevron announced they were building a new (what?) “technical center” in Houston.

    askeptic (8ecc78)

  47. Wendy Davis has less chance of being elected Governor of Texas than I do, and I live in CA.

    askeptic (8ecc78)

  48. 47. LOL. Try NM dame.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  49. an additional 750 left jobs at Nissan to stay in Southern California.

    Well, we should find out who these people are.

    That’s 750 people too stupid to be allowed to vote.

    Smock Puppet, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (225d0d)

  50. Hispanics, roughly one quarter of the local labor force, account for barely five percent of those working at the Valley’s ten largest companies.

    Yes, but considering that 35% of them are illegals, and, of the remaining 65%, 35% of those don’t speak English, that’s probably a fairly good sample…
    😛

    Smock Puppet, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (225d0d)

  51. OT on Donald Sterling and Hiltzik ….

    So he seems to be registered REPUBLICAN based on a search using his DOB and an “808” Address in Beverly Hills.

    Problem is the registration is a BUSINESS ADDRESS. Is that not illegal? If so, might an Employee have registered Donald and not Donald himself?

    Looks odd that he would have long ago donated to Democrats registering Republican and being Jewish.

    Looks like e a Liberal Democrat to me.

    Rodney King's Spirit (ca9e04)

  52. #51, Seems like a shitty residence for a Billionaire even if registered to a business.

    Don’t know Bev Hills at all.

    Rodney King's Spirit (ca9e04)

  53. Yes, it is illegal in CA to register to vote at anything other than your bonafide residence, ask (convicted felon) State Senator Rod Wright about that.

    askeptic (8ecc78)


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