Capitol Report

March 26th, 2009

Creating jobs and making California more business-friendly should be a top priority. Unfortunately, we don't offer strong business incentives, and California is starting to lose out to other states.

For example, in 2005, Intel Corp. announced its plan to spend $3 billion to build a factory in Arizona, creating 3,000 jobs. And this year, Intel again announced plans to spend another $3 billion to combine two chip factories. It only makes sense, seeing that Arizona has pushed for incentives to help lure and retain expansion projects, including an increase in R&D tax credit.

Yet here in California, the tax burden on business is already 20% higher than the rest of the country; unlike 47 other states, California applies full sales tax on the purchase of capital equipment. Until we implement policies that encourage economic and job growth, we're going to continue losing workers and families to states next door.

Senator Mark Wyland represents the people of the 38th Senate District, which includes cities in north San Diego County and the south Orange County cities of San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.

Senator Mark Wyland
1910 Palomar Point Way, Suite 105
Carlsbad, California 92008
760.931.2455 Office
email: senator.wyland@sen.ca.gov

Every year, it seems that the Legislature develops a variety of new government programs in a whole host of areas. But rarely does the state conduct a top down review of state government and review whether we are getting our money’s worth. While the Legislature is quick to expand government, it never actually evaluates the programs and initiatives it creates to see if they actually work. This must change.

Assembly Republicans have created a new Working Group on Government Accountability, which will be working hard in the coming months to make government work more efficient, transparent and effective for the taxpayers it serves, without creating new programs or increasing government spending that will expand the deficit. My colleagues and I will be going through state spending line by line, exploring how government is spending every penny of your tax dollars to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. As the Legislature tackles the many challenges facing our state, I will work hard across party lines to pass these reforms that I believe are essential to ending politics as usual at the State Capitol and making government work for the people again.

Assemblyman Martin Garrick serves the communities of Carlsbad, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas, Rancho Santa Fe, San Marcos, Vista, and portions of San Diego, Escondido and Oceanside as the Assemblyman for the 74th District.