A Belgium-based solar development company has decided to move its American headquarters from Sacramento to Atlanta, Georgia, where it plans to expand its payroll significantly. The decision by Enfinity Corporation means the loss of three to four jobs in Sacramento, plus indirect losses to the local economy, but the new Atlanta office is slated to start with 30 employees and expand quickly.
This is the fourth European-based solar firm to leave the Sacramento region in the past 16 months. (Source: Sacramento Business Journal, February 26.)
(Cal-Tax: It's a sad day when California is losing businesses that depend on the sun. California's elected officials often cite California's climate as being irresistible to business owners, but they have forgotten that there is such a thing as the jobs climate, too. Two stories in the same issue of the Business Journal further illustrate the Golden State's problems: One notes that California has lost more than 600,000 manufacturing jobs since 2001 – not including the 5,000 workers who will be laid off when the NUMMI car manufacturing plant in Fremont shuts down April 1 – and the other describes how Vulcan Materials Company had to spend almost $10 million in 2008 just to oversee environmental regulations in this state. The company's plants were inspected 195 times last year – an 18 percent increase over the previous year – and many of the inspections were conducted by various levels of government, all checking the same things.)
Cal-TaxReports, March 8, 2010
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