Customers order lunches at a bakery in the Napa Valley. (Photo: James Kirkikis, via Shutterstock)OPINION: In the entrepreneurial world, California is a hub of innovation. The state is home to roughly four million small businesses which employ more than seven million workers.
DMV Director Jean Shiomoto on the job. (Photos: Scott Duncan, Capitol Weekly)Jean Shiomoto, who grew up on a pear farm in the Delta, has one of the toughest jobs in California – she runs the Department of Motor Vehicles. In this car-happy state – by one estimate, L.A. County alone has 5.9 million registered automobiles, more than all but five states – anything do with with automobiles is a big deal.
OPINION: There are more than 80,000 franchised enterprises in California, employing nearly a million people. Increasingly franchise owners are seeing our rights slip away as lopsided franchise agreements protect the interests of multi-national franchisors rather than small business owners.
Recent reports from the Franchise Tax Board estimate that California faces a roughly $6.5 billion “tax gap” from unpaid taxes. Remarkably, the state has overlooked an easy solution that is already on its books to help close the tax gap: a reward program to encourage whistleblowers to report tax fraud and tax evasion.