California’s Carl’s Jr. Says So Long, Golden State

Once a corporate fixture in California, where the company began, Carl's Jr. moved its headquarters to Nashville, Tenn. some say to avoid California's onerous taxes and regulations. (Casey Christie/Zuma Press/Newscom)

States: To hear Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, you’d think that taxes can go up to 60% or even 80%, and businesses and investors will just … pay up. But the growing number of businesses stampeding out of high tax areas suggest that they’re very wrong.

We got more evidence of that this week when CKE Restaurants, the corporate parent of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. restaurants, announced that they are relocating to Nashville, Tennessee.
Hardee’s will move its headquarters from St. Louis, Missouri, to Nashville, Tennessee, one of America’s fastest growing states.

Meanwhile, the Carl’s Jr. move puts more egg on the face of California and the political class in Sacramento. Hamburger fast food chain Carl’s Jr. was founded in California and for years has been headquartered in Carpinteria, California. The highest income tax rate in California is 13%, so moving to Tennessee, where the tax rate is zero, will save the company millions of dollars on taxes a year.

Yes, we know that CKE’s official line is that the firm is relocating because it has less need for office space as it consolidates operations. But the company executives say this with a wink. Tax savings are a big factor, as is the stifling regulatory environment on the left coast, where businesses are treated like villains and rich people as cash dispensers for big government programs. It’s not a coincidence that CKE’s CEO Andy Puzder has been one of the leading critics of high taxes and onerous rules in Washington D.C. and Sacramento.
Thanks to its high taxes and burdensome regulations, California’s hemorrhage of jobs and businesses won’t end soon.
The state legislative group ALEC finds in its latest “Rich States, Poor States” rating of the states on business climate that California ranks 44th of all the states in business competitiveness. California has lost roughly 9,000 companies over the last decade, with most of them moving to Texas, Florida, and Tennessee. Last year, in a major loss, Toyota moved its North American headquarters from the Golden State to North Texas.

Given all this, why do Clinton and Sanders keep saying that they are going to get more taxes out of the rich with higher tax rates? California is now going to get 13% of zero from Carl’s Jr., just as the state gets 13% of zero from Toyota. And Washington, D.C., will now get 35% of zero income from Burger King.

Given all this, why do Clinton and Sanders keep saying that they are going to get more taxes out of the rich with higher tax rates?

Because they are psychotic & pathological liars that are only interested in helping the top 10%, which includes them.

California and Moonbeam!

Congrats, to Carl Karcher Enterprises,
for escaping California.

There chicken tenders are outstanding as are the fries too. the burgers taste just like burger king too but less expensive...

Moonbeam? You mean Tennessee Moonshine you cityslicker!?!?! Just kidding.

I thought Moonbeam was a new street drug

Governor Moonbeam that is!

Now.. I got it.

History lesson: Why Jerry Brown is called 'Moonbeam'
October 25, 2010 |

Jerry Brown

In 1976, a Chicago newspaper columnist wrote that Jerry Brown would get "the moonbeam vote."

The writer was Mike Royko, who then started referring to the then-38-year-old Brown as "Gov. Moonbeam." Royko was suggesting that Brown was attracting California's New Age crowd.

Brown was a strong supporter of space exploration and many of the earliest statewide green initiatives. Yet he also gained a reputation as a fiscal conservative, refusing many perks that came with the governorship.

Royko eventually retracted his statement, and in 1991 in the Chicago Tribune, he called the moniker "null, void and deceased." He called it a "meaningless throwaway line."

But in 1991, when Brown announced he would run for president, Roger Simon wrote in the Los Angeles Times: "It's not so much that Brown has changed but that the times have changed around him. I'm serious when I say that in some ways America has caught up with Jerry Brown."

Simon continued: "Brown was a New Wave politician before the phrase was coined. His campaign platform was: 'Protect the Earth, serve the people, explore the universe.' He was the candidate of new, unconventional ideas."

Brown is now 72.

Based on his current campaign and experience, do you think he still embodies the nickname "Moonbeam"? And more importantly, do you think being called "Moonbeam" has had a positive effect on his current campaign?

-- Lori Kozlowski

del Taco and Taco Bell still have their headquarters in California.
Kind of makes sense with the growing demographics there.

Well, it's not that simple either way. Yes, it's true that people will always use whatever loop holes they can, to keep more money. But that means you can't write sloppy tax laws, not that you can't tax people.

After all, if you look at what happened with the opposite thinking, that reducing taxes on the wealthy would cause them to expand businesses and hire more people at higher wages, if you aren't a liar, you'll see THAT turned out to be complete delusion as well.

The poor, have never issued payroll to me, and never will.

I think he should now be called "trainreck".