Why California is losing jobs to Nevada
From California State Sen. Sam Aanestad:
"California has lost more than a half million manufacturing jobs in less than a decade, with most of them relocating to more business-friendly states such as Nevada," said Senator Aanestad. "The Legislative Hearing planned for later this month is our attempt to get some answers. We need to listen to the job providers and other business leaders who have already relocated, and find out why they left and what steps can be taken to prevent others from leaving."This isn't the first time Nevada has gained residents from other states because of our low tax-and-regulatory burden.
Since 2001, California lost 523,500 manufacturing jobs, representing almost 30 percent of the state's industrial base. Over the past eight years, the state shed nearly 600,000 private sector jobs overall, according to the Employment Development Department, with thousands of those relocating to our neighbor to the east.
Nevada lawmakers will join California leaders at the Legislative Hearing in Reno - but they are participating for a different purpose.
"Considering California's high taxes and heavy regulations, it's no wonder that Nevada - a state without many of our cumbersome issues - is benefiting," said Aanestad. "Nevada officials plan to join in our hearing because they want to learn from California's mistakes. They want to keep jobs, not run them out of the state like California has."
That's what's so concerning about Sen. Horsford's call for a broad-based business tax. Higher taxes lead to higher spending, which leads to deficits when the economy goes down (like Nevada's experiencing now), which lead to higher taxes, which lead to higher spending when the economy improves, which leads to deficits when the economy goes down...
This isn't idle speculation. It's what's happened to California over the last 20 years.
Nevada has benefited from California's mistakes, but those benefits won't be permanent if our state makes the exact same missteps.
