Business Flight

Peter King’s skepticism regarding business flight as indicated in his column (“The Exodus Scenario Doesn’t Play”, Jan. 17) would dissipate if he would spend time meeting with businesses as the Economic Development Corp. does under the “L.A. Means Business” program.

Yes, California continues to have enormous economic advantages as a location for doing business. Unfortunately, even tragically, these advantages are being overshadowed by the problems with worker’s compensation, liability laws, the regulatory morass and a host of other concerns with which business must contend on a daily basis.

Our site visits with companies confirm the mounting evidence of surveys, reports and unemployment statistics, which indicate that California is a far less competitive place to do business that it once was.

What we typically encounter is a small to medium-sized manufacturing firm whose owner is struggling to stay competitive in an international market. This owner wants to remain in California, and also wants to see cleaner air and better schools. Yet, the business owner is caught in a web woven by multiple agencies, all with a time-consuming permitting process and a staff who often don’t appreciate that his business owner has limited staff and financial resources. At the end of the day, this business owner also finds that a competitor in say a southeastern state can sell a comparable product in California for half his cost.

Some of the local businesses are approached by out-of-state recruiters, others are making the relocation decision on their own, and still other business owners with more limited resources are making the unhappy decision to shut their doors. In all cases, California loses jobs and tax base.

Talking about the need to improve the business climate in California is not defeatism. It is an honest assessment that we need to improve our product, much like the process that Boeing and Ford have gone through.

How very ironic that cities and states throughout the nation view California’s businesses as ripe for the taking, while so many Californians like King persist in a “state of denial.”

GARY N. CONLEY, President Economic Development Corp. Los Angeles