Does California need to recruit residents?

Let me preface this by saying: I am a native of the Cleveland area who moved back here just a few years ago. No, life's not perfect here, but for me, it's home--and my life here is better in many ways than it was elsewhere.

The reason I ask is, today I was tuned to TBS, rewatching the movie Major League (humor me--in this town, it qualifies as people's #1 favorite porn video) and I noticed that repeated on it many times (at least where I was watching it) was a commercial touting California as the perfect place, not to vacation, but to live. It closes with a plug from Maria Shriver and Ahnold himself.

I must admit, I was a bit surprised. I have always thought of California as a place people move TO, not a place they move FROM.

Is California suffering a population drain, that it feels the need to advertise itself this way to the rest of the country? Or is it that California isn't getting the kind of "quality" population influx it needs, so it's trying to attract a higher caliber of resident?

Just curious as to what Californians might know, or postulate, about this that I do and could not. Thanks.

As a native of the Bay Area, I am vastly outnumbered by transplants from the rest of the country.

Why heck, when the water runs out, we can just drink re cycled piss. Surely there is an orchard still left somewhere that we can build condos on and then name them for what used to be there like pleasant valley or running deer condos. Even yesterday, I saw a space between the bumper to bumper traffic that another Escalade could squeeze into. Ya-all come on out west!

I've seen it air here in the Bay Area

Californians aren't buying

Data from 2007 shows population was up .08 percent. That translates to an increase of roughly 303,000 people (in the mid to late 80's the yearly increase averaged about 2 to 2.5% a year).

The key figure in 2007 was an increase of 233,810 due to international immigration and a loss of 263,035 due to domestic migration. This can be seen going back to 2005, likely from when housing prices were at their peak.

So yes, seems there's a drain from domestic migration.

Link: http://recenter.tamu.edu/data/pops/pops06.htm (U.S. Census data)

Essentially, it's white flight. Middle and upper economic class residents are moving out of the state in large numbers, but the population is relatively flat because it's being balanced by a large inflix of mostly hispanic immigrants. The problem is that, per capita, first generation immigrants tend to have low incomes and be more dependent on social programs. With middle and upper class taxpayers fleeing the state, and with most large taxpaying corporations having already fled, the state is looking at a looming PERMANENT tax shortage just as demand for tax-funded services is booming. Government funded social services have always been dependent on the assumption that the majority of residents were taxpaying with sufficient disposable income to be taxed in support of a minority unable to fully care for themselves. If the current demographic shift continues, we'll be in an unfortunate situation, wherein the majority of the population will be in need of government services, and the minority who do not will be unable to fund it. Throughout history this has been countered by the fact that immigrants naturalize and become taxpayers themselves at some point. Unfortunatly, this state has been gutted economically by corporations moving jobs both overseas and to neighboring states, so it is far more difficult to do that today than it has been in the past.

If the shift continues, California is facing the very real possibility of the permanent elimination of many state funded services. We're talking about permanent cuts to everything from education to road repair. Even more problematic is the fact that our bond payments are fixed...as the state budget shrinks, the percentage spent to repay non-negotiable debt increases.

Taxing the rich isn't the solution, since demographically they are fleeing the state at higher rates than any other group. The solution is to maintain the ration of have's vs. have not's. Since we Californian's also tend to have smaller families, the solution is to bring people in from the rest of the U.S.

..be a point when they will simply pack up and leave.....and they have been doing so
in large numbers since the dot-Com blowout and the Gov. Davis energy cost increases.

Because property values are dropping significantly, homeowners are having their properties reassessed and if they bought within the last few years. So their tax base is dropping by as much as $200K or more, which means a major reduction overall in the assessment/collection of property taxes for many homeowners.

The foreclosure market is seeing this very thing. Homes that sold two or three years ago for $800K+ are now re-selling in the $400K-$500K ranges. That is a significant reduction in the property tax base, also.

One simply needs to read the North County Times comments to any illegal immigration article published to know the impact to cities and especially schools. And business owners are leaving in droves, too. Workers comp rates are so high! Then we're taxed coming and going it seems.

I love California - born and raised in South County. When I was growing up, CA schools were among the best in the country. Now they are among the worst. We had to sell our home to get out of a horrible district and move to another county just to get our kids into a good public school in an area we could afford.

Taxing the rich and business owners is not the solution. They'll just continue to leave.

..a 1978 law holding property taxes at lower levels, as people were losing their homes to
excessive property tax imposed on them over the years.

Once Proposition 13 goes south, many more CA people will be going North and East. :-(

So it's as I suspected...the plug is to get more people (and, no doubt, businesses) from other states to come to California to build up the tax base...with the goal to recruit more who are already successful and enterprising, rather than to attract others who are not doing well elsewhere and might be lured there to seek their fortune, but who might ultimately fail.

In the old days, the siren song of the state was: "Not happy where you are? Not doing well? Come to California, where everyone has a chance to live the good life." (Yeah, right.) Now, it appears to be more like: "Already rich and prosperous? Or at least got a lot of good ideas about how you want to become a success? Come to California, where your success will help us support our huge dependent population. And, oh yeah, if your house elsewhere has been foreclosed on, come here, where the real estate is even MORE expensive--but hey, you can have one in a really cool place! Fires?!? What fires?!?

"You need a job? Well, we really haven't got any of those. But, if you've got a business you want to bring here, by all means do so. No, we won't provide you with any tax incentives--in fact, we'll tax you up the wazoo--but by golly, you'll be able to enjoy our wonderful sunshine and beaches and go to Disneyland EVERY DAY if you want when you're not running your business! You can't do that where you are now!

"But--are you poor? Unemployed? Looking for better opportunity? Then by all means STAY HOME. DON'T COME HERE. We've already got way more than we need, and we really can't help you. You'll just be another mouth for the rest of us to feed."

Really, that seemed to be what this ad was selling. It was like the slogan should have been: "If You're Not a Burden On Society, Come to California--We're Just As Shitty A State As You're Living In Now, But We've Got Disneyland and Places Where It Never Snows."

I really could not see the appeal. I mean, if I want to see the attractions of California, I can always fly in for a vacation. Then I can go home and pay the taxes I pay here rather than the ones I would there. I can work and live much more cheaply here, be closer to my family, watch TV on Eastern Time and, yeah, sure, there's winter, but I grew up with it so I know how to deal with it. Sure, there are places here with overpriced real estate, shitty schools and lousy public facilities, but there are alternatives available as well.

I don't know. This ad struck me as attempting to sell people on moving to California based strictly on sunshine, beach access, and having Disneyland in your backyard (which, of course, doesn't even really sell California, it sells Southern California). None of that, to me, would seem to contradict the downside.

Then again, what do I know? I lived in upstate New York for years. And really, living in upstate New York is pretty much like living in Ohio, only if you live in Ohio, you don't have to subsidize New York City.

...Nice climate, compared to most states?

Yeap, you betcha. No snow, except in the mountains.

Other then that there is NOTHING going for California in 2008 except loads of debt, high energy bills, and no new jobs worth what they pay (which is less then a livable wage in most places) and the state is purple, not Blue, at best.

Come 2009, I am _so_ out of here !

I for one won't be sorry to see it go

:hi: That has been an awful thing since the get go .

Although I have a full-time job, having not seen a meaningful pay raise in three years I'm starting to get a taste of what living on a fixed income feels like.

My house has about quadrupled in market value since I bought it 14 years ago. If the Proposition 13 limits on increases was suddenly lifted, I'd see an increased housing cost of close to $500 per month.

I'm barely able to accumulate sufficient savings as things are now.

It's easy to blame our state's sorry financial condition on Proposition 13, but those revenues go to counties and we do have processes by which voters can approve surcharges on property tax in order to pay for school improvements, vital services like fire protection, etc. In San Diego we are currently paying a 10% surcharge right now.

I don't believe there is much chance of "gutting" Proposition 13 any time soon. The people who benefit most from it are also the people who are most likely to vote.

The only real problem I see with it is that commercial properties can change hands without triggering a new assessment. Corporate entities get created, assets get moved around, and their property taxes remain low. But I have no way to sell my somewhat oversize (for a single person) home and trade down for something more modest without getting hit with a substantial tax increase.

the fact that commercial properties are included. Seniors living in their single unit homes should not be taxed out of them, no matter what. Wells Fargo pulling paperwork scams with their proprties is another story.

Especially in this economic market. More people would lose their homes. I don't think it would be in CA's best interest to repeal Prop 13. I hear the threat every few years, but I just don't see it happening.