Wanted: California business titans for a long-term commitment in a scenic locale offering love, respect … and cheaper taxes.
Please call Colorado.
Yes, Rocky Mountain boosters have launched a flirtatious campaign to win over California business executives and entice them to their state, which they say offers a healthier governmental budget climate, lower tax rates, cheaper real estate and friendly business incentives.
The courting officially began Friday morning with a plane circling Los Angeles freeways toting an 80-foot message for corporate leaders that read: “Colorado loves California.”
“In California, the economic climate isn’t conducive to expanding,” said Janet Fritz, Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.’s director of marketing. “We feel, wow, Colorado is doing a little bit better.”
The airplane ice breaker cost $100,000, but there’s much more razzle-dazzle to come.
The Denver-based economic organization mailed Valentine’s Day cards to nearly 500 California executives working in aerospace, bioscience, energy and information-technology fields. The cards read: “We’re a perfect match.”
The valentines ask executives if they’re ready for a relationship in a region that cares about the health and the growth of its companies. They’re signed with a simple “Yours truly, Metro Denver.”
This spring, Colorado’s Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. and Denver Mayor John W. Hickenlooper will bring business leaders to visit California companies.
Site selectors will also fly in to aid with relocation needs and to find Colorado communities where their businesses will be a good match, Fritz said.
Colorado leaders hope to coax California’s high-tech industry chiefs to follow the relocation path already chosen by other lucrative businesses.
The San Francisco-based Charles Schwab, for example, announced plans in January to expand its Colorado operations with 500 new jobs during the next three years. The jobs are mainly technology positions, paying $75,000 salaries on average.
The investment service company’s expansion provides an annual whopping $157.3 million economic benefit to Colorado, according to the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.
VMware, a Palo-Alto-based software company unveiled plans in 2008 to expand in Colorado and bring 300 new jobs to its site.
Cricket Communications Inc. relocated 200 corporate jobs from San Diego to Denver and then added 100 more positions.
Though original in its starry-eyed campaign, Colorado is not the first state to romance the Golden State.
Nevada, Utah and Arizona have all attempted to charm California businesses into moving in, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
With California facing a $42 billion deficit, a 1 percent sales tax hike for the next 39 months, a 12-cent gas tax and near doubling of its vehicle license fee, businesses are in a world of hurt and other states know that.
Those states long for California’s innovative and successful businesses, such as the high-tech industry, which involve high wages and many support positions, Kyser said.
But it’s California’s unique way of thinking that created these companies in the first place, a trait other states lack, Kyser said.
“It’s the attitude, especially in Southern California. You have a lot of talent and a whole array of industries. We’re very open to new things,” Kyser said. “A lot of people don’t realize that’s one of the keys to our survival.”
Hundreds of county-based businesses will receive postcards starting in March to alert them to the free business support the Los Angeles-based economic corporation provides. (Chuckling at the thought, Kyser did not know if the postcards will feature hearts, cupids or any symbols of love.)
Greg Lippe, chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, said California must offer more incentives for its businesses to stay, because many are fleeing.
In the early part of this decade, for example, California was responsible for 82 percent of all filming in the United States.
Because other states and countries offered lucrative incentives to the film industry, California now accounts for only 30 percent of the nation’s shoots, Lippe said.
“I think what Colorado is doing is fair competition. If we had something to defend ourselves with, it would be a fair fight,” Lippe said. “But so far, we have not developed too much in the way of incentives to bring businesses to California or to retain them.”
