He currently serves on the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Mr. Taplin has served as the project manager for the Kosmont Cost of Doing Business Survey since the first edition was published in 1995. He has been retained by public sector clients to assess fee structure competitiveness and opportunities for economic development and other incentives. Different north-south patterns are apparent with utility user taxes. No significant differences were found between north and south.
Local taxes are but one of the many factors that influence business location decisions.
Where available, local financial incentives can also lure companies. While incentives can make a difference by reducing initial occupancy costs, incentive packages are rarely large enough to substantially impact long-term costs of a new location. These costs become a significant factor in the Medium Cost and especially the High Cost cities. There aren't many such cities in California, but usually they are next to less-costly cities where real estate and labor costs are similar. Some of the High Cost cities can overcome their relative disadvantages in the short run.