Add The California Post on Google California Attorney General Rob Bonta wants you to know that it’s not his fault if Paramount leaves as he tries to block their merger with Warner Bros.
“There’s nothing about this case that requires that — or would cause it. It would be their choice and their choice alone. They’ll have to own it,” he told MS NOW.
That’s the kind of indifference that California’s elected leaders have shown as thousands of companies have left the state for places that don’t treat business like the enemy.
It’s not a new problem. It didn’t start with Gavin Newsom. It began more than a decade ago, as California began ramping up taxes and regulations.
Then-Gov. Jerry Brown admitted the problem in 2014, but mocked the companies that had begun to leave.
“We’ve got a few problems, we have lots of little burdens and regulations and taxes,” he said. “But smart people figure out how to make it.”
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So if you leave, you’re just too stupid to figure out how to overcome the obstacles that the State of California keeps throwing in your way.
Bonta’s latest comments are in that same vein. On the one hand, he says that Paramount is free to do what it wants.
On the other hand, he’s suing Paramount to stop it from doing what it wants.
Bonta also claimed: “There will be 5,000 to 10,000 jobs that could be lost, billions of dollars in economic activity lost because of the merger.”
But LA County experts believe that ten times as many jobs could be lost if Paramount leaves.
Hollywood has already lost tens of thousands of jobs. Industry insiders say the merger might be the only way to save Warner Bros., and to allow Paramount to start scaling up production again.
Remember that Bonta sued to block Spirit and JetBlue from merging. Spirit collapsed and thousands of jobs disappeared.
Hollywood doesn’t need a sequel to that horror flick.
Most companies don’t want to leave California. And their employees don’t want to leave California.
But the state’s policies are chasing them away.
Instead of asking how California can keep companies here, our elected leaders try to duck responsibility, or blame the companies for leaving.
Bonta is right that leaving would be Paramount’s “choice.” But it was his “choice” to sue.
If they leave, Rob Bonta “will have to own it.” So stop the blame game, and make a deal.
