California lacks business strategy

California lacks a business strategy, according to an editorial in the Vacaville Reporter: “Vacaville tried in vain to lure a new electric vehicle assembly plant valued at $100 million that would have created about 300 high-tech jobs. It’s going elsewhere, to Michigan or to the East Coast. This is a Silicon Valley start-up company that is producing vehicles in England and wants to build its next non-polluting car in the United States.”

The firm’s chief executive says it doesn’t make good business sense to build the plant in California. “There are some states that are very, very interested in having green manufacturing, and California doesn’t seem to be one of them”, Martin Eberhard, Tesla Motors’ CEO, told their reporter. Mr. Eberhard said he received personal phone calls from the governor of Arizona, proposing different programs and incentives to bring the jobs to his state. And the governor of Michigan “cornered” him to promise all obstacles would be cleared from the path to his state. When it came to California, Mr. Eberhard said, “I get shunted to a fellow in the California governor’s office, who he dubbed “Dr. No.”

“In effect, this company was told what many others have been told: That the state doesn’t believe in business incentives… In fact, the state no longer has an agency with an adequate staff to pursue employers and new industry. This lack of a economic development strategy, is puzzling. But there is no mystery about the response of business leaders who are looking elsewhere to build new enterprises.”