Community Commentary:

It is no secret that California is hemorrhaging jobs at a dangerous rate. Unemployment topped 11.5% in May, with 68,900 jobs lost that month alone. It’s easy to blame these losses on the international economic recession, which has led to widespread layoffs as businesses struggle to keep their heads above water. But the truth is that not all of these jobs are disappearing into thin air — many of them are simply leaving the state. In fact, entire industries are fleeing California in search of relief from the excessive regulation and taxation that makes it difficult to do business in this state.

Manufacturing is one such industry. The loss of manufacturing jobs is particularly damaging to the state economy, considering that the high-paying industry has a ripple effect, creating 2.5 jobs in other sectors for every manufacturing job created. With 536,000 manufacturing job losses since December 2000, it is easy to see why California simply cannot afford to push the manufacturing industry out of the state. But that’s exactly what it’s doing — in more ways than one.

For example, you may be surprised to hear that our state K-12 education plan discourages careers in manufacturing by strongly favoring a university path for graduates over technical career training. Requirements to graduate high school in California leave little room for students to deviate from the college-bound path. But the truth is that only 25% of high school graduates complete the remaining preparatory classes that qualify them for admission to most four-year colleges.

As a former educator, I strongly believe in the value of a college education. However, my 28 years of teaching high school taught me that not every student is interested in a university education. While many graduates enroll in community colleges, many more are simply uninterested in continuing formal education and aspire to enter the workforce immediately. By forcing students into a one-size-fits-all curriculum that leaves little opportunity for career training, we are effectively discouraging students from considering a well-paying career in traditional manufacturing at a time when college costs are soaring and financial aid is limited.

Additionally, manufacturing businesses face burdensome hurdles in California. A recent study conducted by the Milken Institute and commissioned by the California Manufacturers and Technology Assn. reveals that California faces two competitive disadvantages when it comes to retaining the manufacturing industry: its restrictive regulatory climate and excessive tax burden. This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with California’s reputation as a difficult place to do business.

Studies, surveys and assessments consistently rank California’s unpredictable regulatory environment as one of the most challenging. Specifically, the Milken report cites California’s labor laws, which have undergone an average of 15 statutory changes per year from 1992 to 2002 — a figure four times larger than the average of state legislatures nationwide. In recent years, Assembly Bill 32 has presented particular challenges for the manufacturing industry by imposing an arbitrary cap on carbon emissions.

The fact that California has some of the highest income and corporate taxes in the nation doesn’t help matters. Using data from 2000-07, the Milken Institute study compares California’s tax burden to that of seven states which gained manufacturing jobs in the same period California experienced losses. California’s total taxes per capita were the highest of the seven peer states. California was also the only peer state to increase its individual tax rate in the period of analysis, and when it comes to corporate taxes, California has the 12th highest in the nation.

While California certainly isn’t living up to its economic potential, it’s not too late to reverse the downward trend. As our state faces a $25-billion-and-growing budget deficit, we must do all we can to keep valuable industries in the state and contributing to our fledgling economy. Relaxing regulatory hurdles and offering incentives to the industry by way of tax credits will provide incentives for manufacturing firms to stay put in California. At the same time, we must encourage careers in traditional manufacturing by offering greater opportunities for technical career training in high school.

A robust manufacturing industry once helped catapult California’s economy to one of the healthiest in the world.

Letting the manufacturing industry slip away from the state is simply not an option if we ever expect our economy to recover.

JIM SILVA is an Assemblyman covering the 67th District, which includes Huntington Beach.