Community Commentary:

The word is out on California. Don’t open up shop here. Even though we bask in excellent weather and have a skilled, motivated and educated workforce, the promise of doing business in the Golden State is not so golden.

The unemployment rate has hit double digits, recently arriving at just more than 12%, and those who are employed will work 110 days this year just to pay their taxes to federal, state and local government. And yet, California keeps piling on the burdens.

There seems to be a convergence among think tanks, academia and business organizations that shows California to be among the least attractive places to do business. Now, an official report, mandated by state law and available on the California State Business Advocate’s website ( www.sba.ca.gov), paints an alarming picture of just how badly we are hurting our own society with taxes and regulations.

This report, titled “Cost of State Regulations on California Small Business Study,” puts it in black and white. The study found that the total cost of regulations to California is $493 billion, resulting in an employment loss of 3.8 million jobs! It further found that these regulatory costs are “borne almost completely by small business.” The study goes on to say that the total cost of regulation was about $134,000 per small business in California in 2007. Additionally, small businesses suffered costs of about $4,300 in labor income not created or lost and just more than $57,000 in indirect business taxes not generated or lost. It should come as no surprise that the study concluded that regulations resulted in “roughly one job lost per small business.”

These numbers all add up to a cost of doing business that is unparalleled.

In addition, the California Air Resources Board recently decided to charge tens of millions in new fees to California-based industries to pay for the administration of new programs as a result of a controversial “global warming” measure, Assembly Bill 32, signed into law in 2006.

It is no wonder that the Nevada Development Authority successfully targets California businesses, weary of our government’s crushing grip, to move jobs across our border and relocate to a state that chooses not to stifle job creation and innovation.

Sacramento must stop placing the blame for California’s troubled economy squarely on the national recession. The Legislature must recognize that years of piled-on regulations, taxes and fees on the very businesses that provide literally millions of jobs for Californians have heavily contributed to where our state’s economy stands today.

As Ronald Reagan once said, “Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.” It’s time the Legislature and the governor do more than make cuts to programs — they need to make cuts to the fees and regulations in which our state’s employers are drowning.

JIM SILVA is an assemblyman covering the 67th District, which covers Huntington Beach.