CALEXIT: 2 dozen companies commit to leaving California

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Two dozen California companies have said they are tired of the business-bashing in Sacramento, along with the high taxes -- and they are now threatening to leave the state.

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The day after Proposition 30 passed, triggering $6 billion in new annual taxes, Arizona launched a campaign to lure some of California’s top companies.

KCRA 3 has learned that 24 chief executives are flying to Phoenix, Ariz., to explore the land of lower taxes and a much friendlier business environment.

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“We can deliver the mayors, we can deliver the CEOs, we can deliver the legislative support,” said Barry Broome, president of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council.

Broome launched his campaign to recruit California CEOs one day after voters in the Golden State approved Prop 30 last November, and the campaign is working.

Broome said 24 CEOs already have committed to leaving California.

“You start sending the wrong message to those folks and they start voting with their feet,” Broome said.

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The Greater Phoenix region grew by 50,000 jobs last year.

Meanwhile, many California companies are thinning their ranks.

Chevron is moving 800 jobs from their Bay Area headquarters to Texas, and Waste Connections shifted more than 100 jobs to Texas from Folsom.

Other California firms are also on the move.

Business relocation expert Joe Vranich has been counting.

“I tracked for 2011, that 254 companies of all sizes and shapes and kinds left the state for primarily other states,” said Vranich, the president of Spectrum Location Services in Irvine.

He told KCRA 3 that companies leave California for three primary reasons: “High taxes, excessive regulations and the threat of really ridiculous lawsuits.”

And they are leaving for places such as Arizona, a state that means business.

The state is big on streamlining business regulations and cutting through bureaucratic red tape.

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