As California bleeds ....

Just a quick snapshot from one company's experience ... repeated over and over in a state with such bountiful gifts, yet continues to strangle the Golden State's goose.

Shutterfly Inc. will lay off more than 100 employees at its Hayward production facility by May of next year to help it tap lower labor costs outside of California.

The digital photo sharing and printing business, based in Redwood City, plans to open a new facility in Phoenix, Ariz., by April 1, 2009.

"The labor costs in Phoenix are about the same as Charlotte (where the company has another production facility), and that's about a 30 percent to 35 percent reduction from Hayward levels," Mark Rubash, Shutterfly's chief financial officer, said on a July 30 earnings call.
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The company plans to lay off 106 employees by April 30, according to a report filed with the Alameda County Workforce Investment Board.

Shutterfly incurred approximately $80,000 in lease-termination costs in June, it said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and will incur approximately $800,000 in severance costs.

The company expects to incur as much as $150,000 in additional costs associated with the relocation of certain employees, which it will expense through 2009, the filing said.

It exports successful California culture and imports Latin American culture. Good luck with all that.