Yet another batch of reasons why California bugs me.     A good friend of mine forwarded this article about the latest anti-business legislation hitting me from Sacramento:

California has a long tradition of bombarding businesses with regulations, from rules that give Native Americans wide latitude to veto construction projects to environmental laws that favor exotic plants over power plants. But the Golden State's sumptuous assets—its climate, its appeal to immigrants, and its splendid universities—always trumped the business bashing. At least until now. The state government under embattled Democratic Governor Gray Davis is turning so stridently antibusiness that it threatens to inflict permanent structural damage. Since 2002 the left-leaning legislature has enacted or expanded half-a-dozen laws dealing with burdensome regulations like family leave and overtime pay. Some corporate leaders think California is becoming Sweden-on-the-Pacific.

The details are scary.    The nation's highest & most expensive state-mandated benefits package is becoming MORE expensive during this downturn rather than less.   For example, six-weeks of mandatory family leave *per-year* funded by employee payroll deductions for a list of ailments determined by yet another state bureaucracy.    

I've always said that my "shortest political quiz" is "where does wealth come from".   It's pretty obvious from this article that the California legislature think it's granted & legislated rather than produced.

And in a classic example of why the fight between Republicans and Democrats is often a choice between the lesser of 2 evils - the law of unintended consequences:

Why is all this happening now? Largely because the Republican recall effort against Governor Davis has pushed him to the left. Davis needs union money and support to fight his opponents, so he has embraced the unions' agenda. So has the legislature, where Democrats control both houses.