An ugly scene in the California economy played out in our own backyard this week, as Waste Connections, Sacramento's most valuable company, announced that it is moving its corporate headquarters – and the 100 jobs that go with it – to a Houston suburb.

Waste Connections was a shining star in local business, starting here 15 years ago as a one-man shop and growing into a 6,500-employee behemoth operating in 30 states.

But CEO and founder Ron Mittelstaedt has finally had enough of California's hostile, complex, expensive business environment and decided to pull up his stakes and head to greener pastures, where government doesn't treat business like the enemy. The company is paying $15 million in relocation costs to escape our state.

Mittelstaedt told News 10 that "California has great weather, great people, but it has a very difficult business climate." Unfortunately, that is a massive understatement.

CEO Magazine has ranked California as absolutely the worst state to do business for the seventh straight year. The national Tax Foundation ranks California's tax competitiveness as the 49th worst in the nation. Mittelstaedt mentioned that California's worker's compensation rates are three times higher than in the other 29 states where he does business. Add all that up and it's a formula for business after business to follow Waste Connections' lead.

I met with Mittelstaedt in September, when he first hinted at the move. I went to his Folsom office and discussed with him the challenges he faced doing business in California and how we could work together to keep his corporate headquarters in my district. Ultimately, my efforts and those of other pro-business, pro-jobs legislators were not enough to keep him here.

And it's not just Waste Connections. Up and down my district I talk to people who are furious at how tough it is to make a living in California. Its special ADA regulations, frivolous lawsuits, over-the-top environmental protections, absurdly high taxes and more make it a rotten spot to succeed.

I am tired of my constituents and other business owners here being treated like piñatas by regulators and politicians who smack them around until some fine or penalty falls out.

We should be celebrating every business success story and moving mountains to attract job creators from around the country and the world, but any CEO or future Steve Jobs will think twice about California when they read the Waste Connections story.

I will not sit idly by and do nothing to stop a business exodus from this state when there are real, tangible changes we can make in the Capitol that will allow California to be competitive again and not a byword for economic dysfunction.

For the past two years I have introduced legislation to radically reduce California's suffocating anti-business regulations. It would have added some sanity to the adoption of new regulations as well, but most important, it would have gone back in time and cleaned out some of the muck that discourages entrepreneurs and investors in our state.

Last year I introduced a small- business tax relief bill that basically mirrored President Barack Obama's small-business tax bill, but apparently even Obama's tax policies are too business-friendly for the California Legislature.

It's no accident that Waste Connections is moving to Texas. That state is eating our lunch every day and has an unemployment rate nearly 25 percent lower than ours. It is friendly to business. Earlier this year, a group of California legislators traveled there to see how it was creating jobs even in the economic downturn. Trust me, nobody is coming to California to learn about job creation.

We can't run in place any more with our business environment. We have to improve. We have to undo mistakes of the past. With the Legislature back in session Jan. 4, I want to make clear that I will work with any legislator, Democrat or Republican, who is willing to recognize the depth of our problems and propose solutions that match them in scope.

It's true that California has some natural advantages that will never disappear, but apparently they were not enough to keep Waste Connections in sunny Folsom. And let's recall that Greece has a beautiful climate, too. Like California, its politics is broken, not its weather.

I want to congratulate Ron Mittelstaedt and his entire team on building such a wildly successful company and wish them the best of luck in Texas. I only hope that one day a changed California can bring them and their talents back home.

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State Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, represents the 1st Senate District.

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