Business Climate

I wonder if Peter King (“Throwing Business a Bone,” On California, Feb. 17) attended the same economic summit I did. Or if he has ever read a single study about the California business climate. Or if he has ever looked at very real data that shows how we are at a competitive disadvantage with other states. Or if he heard small business owner Enita Nordeck eloquently describe how she built a small business despite all of the obstacles--and, if she were to do it over again, would not choose California. The cost of workers’ compensation and of lengthy and cumbersome permitting processes that delay businesses opening their doors, the out-of-control litigation, and the high taxes are black-and-white issues that conspire against California’s competitiveness. And, though King acknowledges that the purpose of business is to “create jobs to make products or services in order to turn profits,” doesn’t he realize that these barriers get in the way of creating jobs at a time when California needs them badly? The “suits,” as King so flippantly put it, will not be satisfied because there was yet another forum on the California business climate--and certainly not because The Times prints a story portraying them as “whiners and blamers” because they talk about very real issues. They are speaking for the workers; after all, we seem to forget that they are the job creators. The success of the California economic summit will be measured not by two days of media coverage of our problems, and certainly not by the cynical and negative response of King, but by substantive and responsible public policy reform that addresses the real issues that place California at a competitive disadvantage in an intense global competition for jobs. Though I risk being characterized as one of the whiners, let me share my deep conviction that, with real and immediate action by the California Legislature, the economic summit will be judged a success, California will take a back seat to no one, and those who now swell our unemployment rolls will be the beneficiaries. JULIE MEIER WRIGHT, Secretary California Trade and Commerce Agency Sacramento