CathInfo.com

California would be a great place, if it weren't for all the freaks concentrated along the coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

My aunt lived in Merced, in the San Joaquin Valley, and it was an idyllic place, possibly the best agricultural land in the world.  I wouldn't mind living there.  Fresno and Bakersfield are actually pretty solid, conservative cities.  Far worse places.

We left CA in 2003. High on the list of reasons:

• California's Utilities Commission had already contracted for utility rates to triple, "the writing was on the wall."
• California's Employment Commission decided that a bona fide contractor was an employee and wanted…wait for it!… $130,000 in back taxes and penalties. They "settled" for $30,000 thta thye weren't actually owed. They always pick a number slightly less than the cost of litigating. It's a Jєω thing.
• The County Assessor/Auditor threatened to put a lock on my office that moment because he couldn't find my tax payments in his records, even though I provided cancelled checks and receipts. I had to double-pay the taxes that moment or be shut down. And again they picked a number slightly less than the cost of litigating and money lost while the office would have been locked. It's a Jєω thing.
• My competition rifles were serially outlawed, so I had to move them out of state. That too is a Jєω thing.
• Then there's the guy who dropped his drawers and defecated in front of us as we were about to enter one of our favorite restaurants. Yep, a W.E.B. du Bois/Jєω thing.

Oh, California, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways.

Five years after leaving CA and not returning, they tried to dun me for taxes and penalties for income earned out of state after we left. Yep, you guessed it!