Assemblymember Jeff Gorell (R-27)(Left) and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom headline the newly formed Gold Team jobs initiative.
In the same way Samuel L. Jackson had enough with a certain limbless animal on a certain aircraft, California has had enough with other states trying to poach its businesses. Now, they’re fighting back for the sake of the California economy.
The Gold Team may sound like some sort of Avengers spin-off, but it’s actually a bipartisan effort in California to start targeting businesses in other states for relocation to the Golden State. The primary leadership of the Gold Team is Assemblymember Jeff Gorell, a Republican from the 27th District, and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the keynote speaker at the first-ever California Economic Summit in May.
The marching orders right now for the team is for Gorell, Newsom, and other officials and business experts to tour the country and speak to CEOs, pitching California’s educational opportunities, crime rate, and climate as reasons to lure their businesses – and the jobs and tax dollars that come with them – and relocate to California.
The process has already begun. Gorell and Newsom have already started meetings with real estate leaders to find out which companies have made inquiries into property within California. Gorell has also looked into large empty buildings in the Central Coast region that could be pitched as new headquarters for businesses that are thinking of relocating.
But while the Gold Team is surely a step in the right direction as far as promoting California as a place to do business, much is still up in the air. The Team’s call to action has been called vague, and where the money to travel across the country is going to come from is a topic that hasn’t been broached yet. How exactly the Gorell/Newsom duo expect pitch sunny weather while lists keep popping up describing the state’s business climate as oppressive is going to be a difficult hoop to jump through in the effort to bring businesses back to California.
Still, troubling specifics aside, what’s most important about the Gold Team is that it actually exists, and hopefully the added attention to California’s ability (or lack of ability) to attract business will bring renewed focus to what obstacles are standing in the way.
In this sense, the Economic Summit’s Action Plan can serve as a valuable tool when it comes to tapping innovative thinkers via the Plan’s Action Teams in order to accomplish specific goals like creating an Economic Competitiveness Plan, reinforcing our network of Regional Innovation Centers, and more.
While the Gold Team definitely puts an important focus on the issue of California’s competitiveness to attract business, it’s going to take more than schmoozing across the country to create real change that will make businesses view California as a state of opportunity like they once did. Still, we look forward to following the Team’s handiwork and ideas.
