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A group of investors is offering to pay the expenses of companies that want to move out of California due to an increasingly business-unfriendly environment as well as the “horrifying” movement to ‘defund police.’

Location advisory firm Spectrum Location Solutions assists in “helping businesses grow in great locations,” the company’s motto says, the Dallas Morning News reported Thursday.

Just not in California.

The paper noted that the Pittsburgh-based company abandoned the Golden State in 2018 and is now partnering with three private investors to cover the costs of moving other firms out of states considered to be hostile to business — like California — to states where the business climate is more friendly. Like Texas.

The Dallas Morning News adds:

The offer applies to any business with revenue ranging from $5 million to $200 million, said Joe Vranich, the firm’s president and a frequent critic of California’s business environment. He has been tracking corporate migration away from California for years.

“California is our No. 1 target because the irresponsibility of California’s politicians has reached new levels,” Vranich said, noting that the state’s supermajority of socialist Democrats in power are considering new tax hikes on businesses as well as legislation that will dramatically boost labor and litigation costs.

“People who do good work deserve a bouquet instead of a brick,” he continued, adding: “The whole economic apparatus in the state of Texas is top-notch.”

Vranich notes further that he was hired by the investor team to serve as a conduit for the relocation program, noting he’s already received a “couple of calls.” Each investor, all of whom have remained anonymous, are capable of handling several companies apiece, he adds.

The California critic said that the relocation offer is a good one for firms with between 20 and 200 employees — electronics firms, plastics manufacturers, software companies, and the like, he said.

“The cost and work behind moving is a big psychological barrier, especially for small companies,” Vranich said.

Here’s how it works: The investors will do the groundwork in finding land and providing funding, either as a loan or in return for equity. But for business owners who want to sell instead, the investors are willing to look into that and perhaps take over those firms, the Dallas Morning News noted.

In addition to a rising anti-business climate in California, Vranich said there were other reasons including the movement to defund police departments and the growing civil unrest seen in major cities.

Citing the “horrifying” ‘defund-the-police’ efforts in California, he said that other factors make Texas more attractive including no state income tax, more affordable housing and less traffic overall.

“Businesses are wondering if police departments are defunded, then who’s going to stop people from stealing from them? A social worker?” Vranich said.

The coronavirus is also factoring into decisions by some business owners to relocate.

“People are calling and saying, ‘I don’t want to be in a high-rise in a city riding a subway shoulder to shoulder,” he said, the paper reported. “There’s been a clear reaction to COVID.”

Others have considered abandoning California over its restrictive COVID-19 policies, including top podcaster Joe Rogan.

“I don’t know if [California] is a good place to live,” Rogan said in May. “First of all, it’s extremely expensive. The taxes are ridiculous…I might jet. I’m not kidding. I don’t need to be here.”

He said he likes Austin, the Texas capital, as well as Dallas. He would also consider Houston, though he noted that summers there are uncomfortable.

Texas is gonna be even more awesome, if that was even possible. Joe Rogan, Elon Musk…anyone else? Texas is open for business for freedom loving Americans. https://t.co/WHRsCZL5K3

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) May 14, 2020

In terms of business flight, a study by Spectrum found that over an eight-year period, some 13,000 businesses located out of California in full or in part, diverting around $77 billion in revenues to other states.

And Texas was a major beneficiary of those dollars, as well as a leading destination for disillusioned Californians.

That said, critics are concerned that the ex-Californians may bring their Left-wing voting habits with them, essentially exporting — over time — the same political ideology and policies that corrupted the Golden State.

Vranich gets that.

“If I lived in Texas, I’d only want one kind of Californian to come — only those with an exceptionally high IQ who decided to escape miserably run cities run by Democrats,” he told the paper.

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Jon Dougherty

Staff Writer
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Jon is a staff writer for BizPac Review with 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.

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