At a debate between John Coffey (D-Newberry Springs) and Jay Obernolte (R-Big Bear) this evening [both are the final 2 facing off on November 4, 2014 for the 33rd District Assembly District in California], I heard from Republican Jay Obernolte how California's business unfriendly government policies are chasing out business and jobs in response to a question about a Chinese aluminum smelter business not locating in Barstow--maybe he needs to test fewer of his pinball games and come down from the Mountains once in a while and check his facts:
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1. California's economic growth is one of the highest!!
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According to USA Today U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 2.5% in 2012 after growing 1.6% in 2011, the most the economy has grown since 2006. Nationally, manufacturing, trade and the finance and insurance industry made some of the biggest contributions to growth. While the national economy grew, some of the country's largest state economies, including California and Texas, increased at an even faster rate. Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/06/15/states-with-the-fastest-growing-economies/2416239/--opps for Obernolte
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2. Obernolte claims to be a UCLA grad--too bad he did not read the LA Times (probably too liberal for him) before the debate. A UCLA economist (quoted in the LA Times) reported that "job growth in much of California has outpaced the national average over the last year, signaling a continued economic rebound for the state in the coming years, according to the quarterly UCLA Anderson Forecast released Thursday "(yesterday)-opps for Obernolte
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3. Litigation rates in California is one of the lowest; Obernolte should take a look at the numbers from the California court system, which recently issued its 2012 Court Statistics Report, including even more recent data for the 2010-11 fiscal year. On page 96 of that PDF (page 83 of the report) are numbers for civil case filings in each of the last 10 fiscal years, showing not only a drop from FY 09 to FY 10 but a further drop in FY 11. The number of civil filings in 2010-11 was 11.6% less than the number of filings in 2008-09, which was the high point of the 10-year period. What was that about the trend of litigation in California?
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Here’s something else from that 2010 National Center for State Courts report that flies in the face of the corporate lobby’s contention that California is somehow an overly litigious state. There’s a table on page 9 of the PDF of the report ranking 29 states and the District of Columbia by number of civil suits filed per capita in 2010. California ranks 28th of the 30 jurisdictions and was 38% below the median for the group. Yes, California has a lot of civil lawsuits (although many fewer than New York or Florida). It also has by far the largest population.
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The NCSC report goes on to show that the civil court dockets in many states are dominated by corporate plaintiffs. In the 17 states that maintain adequate records (California is not one of them), 61% of their civil cases in 2010 were contract cases, typically filed by businesses and often against other businesses. Tort cases, including those typically filed by consumers such as personal injury, wrongful death and medical malpractice, made up just 6% of those states’ civil caseloads in 2010.
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Remember, when the corporate lobby complains about “too many lawsuits,” they’re not complaining about the number of suits they file. They’re complaining about being held accountable in the civil justice system by consumers. And your suits require court time and resources that could be spent on their suits.
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4. The Chinese business was a huge problem from the gitgo; we are in drought conditions and a smelting operation needs lots of water and the air quality in the area is so bad (from the transportation corridor usage, sludge to composting operations and high winds that carry pm 2.5 particles putting at risk children and the elderly), that the additional burden could have just plain killed a lot of people. Monthly the newspaper publishes a Prop 65 warning about the air being so bad.
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Bottom line: It seems these days that the only way conservative republicans can win on the economy is to be real dumb or out-and-out lie ]oh yeah---Coffey won and we would be fortunate to have him serve the 33rd Assembly District in California).
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