California, the land of one-party rule, is now paying the price for their “compassionate” socialist liberalism. The state that is one of the country’s least friendly places to do business just had another of its biggest corporations leave the state.
Food and drink giant Nestle is moving its operations from the welfare state of liberal California to business-friendly Virginia with all the state taxes they pay. There was no immediate comment from two-term Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown.
In an op-ed piece in Investors Business Daily, we learn Nestle USA will move its headquarters from the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale to Rosslyn, a Virginia city just outside Washington, D.C. That will mean the loss of 1,200 employees. That means 1,200 California taxpayers. In other words, responsible citizens who put money in the treasury for all of California’s many social welfare commitments.
The bottom line for corporations is this: California is an awful place to do business. A corporate spokesperson for the giant corporation was delicate in remarks about the major move. But the truth is Nestle feels they are overtaxed and over-regulated
This is not the first departure for the Nestle Corporation. The state has already lost some Nestle jobs when the company moved the production of its “Hot Pockets” brand from California to Kentucky. The reason was they couldn’t get the permits the company needed to expand.
It is no secret to the business community that California is legendary for its wacky business laws. The Golden State has become a venue for activist groups to file costly class action lawsuits or anti-corporate PR campaigns against big pocket corporations like Nestle.; no pun intended.
Two such lawsuits involved Nestle against activist-led actions. The first alleged that Nestle improperly documented its anti-slave-labor policies. It was an utterly frivolous, yet costly lawsuit. Then there was the nuisance court action that involved Nestle’s selling of California mountain water under the Arrowhead brand, a decades-old business that has suddenly become environmentally incorrect.
Nestle will be following other corporate giants out of the state such as Toyota and Occidental Petroleum who have moved to Texas. That is a total of $68 million dollars after approximately 1,500 “disinvestment actions” in the state. It is estimated that by leaving California, these corporations save between 25 to 35 percent in operating costs.
