Collectivist California bureaucrat miffed his state will lose Sacramento Kings team to Washington state which has lower taxes

 
1/26/13, "California lawmaker threatening Microsoft over … loss of Sacramento Kings?" Hot Air, Morrissey

"Last weekend, Phil Mickelson threatened to move out of California over the onerous tax hikes imposed by Jerry Brown and the Democratic supermajority in Sacramento.  Mickelson later apologized for his outburst, although I’m not sure why; he has just as much right to complain as anyone else....

As it turns out, Mickelson’s not the only sports entity looking at a Golden Gate exit.  Forbes noted that one big beneficiary of Brown’s tax hike on high-end earners could be Seattle, which has been without a basketball team since 2008.  Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer heads up a group bidding to purchase the Kings, who play in California’s capital Sacramento, and taxes are certainly part of that puzzle:...

"On Monday morning, the Seattle Times reported that a Seattle group helmed by hedge-fund manager Chris Hansen and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer agreed to purchase the Sacramento Kings. Pending approval from the NBA Board of Governors, the team would move to Seattle and play its first season as the SuperSonics this fall....

"From this perspective, a move from California to Washington State is a no-brainer. The marginal personal-income tax rate for wealthy Californians – a category under which professional ballplayers almost certainly fall – is a whopping 13.3 percent. Washington, on the other hand, levies no personal income tax on any of its residents. Whether a member of the SuperSonics organization is shooting free-throws or taking tickets, he gets to keep more of his earned income."...

How has California reacted to this example of free-market economics?  Have they decided to lower taxes and broaden the tax base to make the business environment more inviting?  Perhaps reduced the red tape that turns every expansion into a years-long project, which only takes weeks in other states? Not exactly.  No, they’ve decided to go the “nice business ya have there — wouldn’t want anything to happen to it” route."...

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1/24/13, "The Sacramento Kings' Departure From Hypertaxed California Signals Return Of The Seattle SuperSonics," Forbes, Rex Sinquefield, via Free Republic

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California was there for the taking, doors open, cash register open, natural resources defenseless, given away or sold to white collar thugs:

12/23/12, "Pot farms wreaking havoc on Northern California environment," LA Times, Joe Mozingo
 
""I started talking to this guy, and he says he used to be an Earth First! tree-sitter, saving the trees," Bauer said. "I told him everything he was doing here negates everything he did as an environmentalist."...

"Wildlife technician Aaron Pole surveys a forest trashed by growers. Carbofuran, an insecticide lethal to humans in small doses, is found regularly at large-scale pot farms. Also flowing into the watershed are rodenticides, fungicides, diesel fuel and other pollutants (Genaro Molina, Los Angeles Times / November 15, 2012)".

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12/15/10, "Two Californias," Victor Davis Hanson

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Spring, 2010, "The Beholden State-How public sector unions broke California," City Journal, Steve Malanga. license plate image via Free Republic

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