CA govt. drives out another business
Warren Meyer finally had it. With the new year, he closed his park business in California.
California no longer will be able to harass him, nor to collect taxes from him and his now unemployed ex-employees, many of whom will collected benefits from the state treasury.
He told the details to Reason magazine:
- It took years in Ventura County to make even the simplest modifications to the campground we ran. For example, it took 7 separate permits from the County (each requiring a substantial payment) just to remove a wooden deck that the County inspector had condemned. In order to allow us to temporarily park a small concession trailer in the parking lot, we had to (among other steps) take a soil sample of the dirt under the asphalt of the parking lot. It took 3 years to permit a simple 500 gallon fuel tank with CARB and the County equivalent. The entire campground desperately needed a major renovation but the smallest change would have triggered millions of dollars of new facility requirements from the County that we simply could not afford.
- In most states we pay a percent or two of wages for unemployment insurance. In California we pay almost 7%. Our summer seasonal employees often take the winter off, working only in the summer, but claim unemployment insurance anyway. They are supposed to be looking for work, but they seldom are and California refuses to police the matter. Several couples spend the whole winter in Mexico, collecting unemployment all the while. So I have to pay a fortune to support these folks’ winter vacations.
- California is raising minimum wages over the next 2 years by $2. Many of our prices are frozen by our landlord based on past agreements they have entered into, so we had no way to offset these extra costs. At some point, Obamacare will stop waiving its employer mandate and we will owe $2000-$3000 extra additional for each employee. There was simply no way to support these costs without expanding to increase our size, which is impossible (see above) due to County regulations.
Note that the minimum wage increase, which Gov. Jerry Brown and other supporters claim will help workers, hurt them here by getting them laid off. Most politicians and government functionaries have no idea how private business works. When government costs go up, they just raise taxes, like Brown’s $7 billion Proposition 30 in 2012.
But when costs go up for business, either some way is found to increase revenues, or the business goes bust, or moves somewhere else. In this case, the business closed.
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Reason magazine?
And, the rest of the story?
Sounds like “The End.”
Typical Calfornia. Punish the producers. Reward the scofflaws.
Did you read about the latest decision by the California Supreme Court? There’s an article about it in the LA Times. A former journalist who was accused of writing dishonest media articles (lol) went to the Georgetown University School of Law (one of the best in the nation) and graduated with a JD. He passed both the CA and NY bar exams. The California Bar banned him from practicing based on his reputation in journalism. Said he was morally unfit! (LOL). The case went to the CASC and it upheld the ban claiming that the applicant did not show sufficent rehabilitation following his career in journalism and was morally unfit to be a lawyer (LOL). No, I am not making this up. Go read the article for yourself if you don’t believe me.
Yet this SAME CASC recently ruled that an ILLEGAL ALIEN who, at last report, continues to live in the US illegally and gained employment in California while being illegal passed the CA bar exam is permitted to practice law in California. Apparently he can break our laws but he is MORALLY FIT to be a lawyer, yet an American citizen who was only accused of fabricating media articles is morally unfit because he has not been sufficiently rehabilitated. (LOL). Go figure.
No, I am not making this up. This is an erosion of American values. The values that made this nation great. Everyday is ‘opposite day’. The opposite of what it is supposed to be.
First, Kalifornia doesn’t need another lawyer, even if it’s for the wrong reason.
Second, Kalifornia is an Eden for outdoor enthusiasts. No place on Earth is there more ways to recreate outside than in Kali. And the state is doing it’s best to close them down like Obama did during the shutdown. If you read the entire article it said that a lawyer met with the employees of the park regularly just trying to find some way to sue the park management, for anything. Not even Joe Stalin would allow such abuse.
Hondo…….
Honda? Invoking Stakin? Isn’t that a little over the top even for a hissy fit doomer guy like yourself?
Why can’t you just offer an opinion on the news instead of lodging personal attacks against other posters?
Grow up.
Chaz Steals is a statist misogynist, he’s not about being correct, to him it’s about state control of money flowing to his pay and pension. 🙂