The Surety Bond Conundrum

A Surety Bond Conundrum; Bad for Business, Good for Bonding ?

Chief executive Magazine just published its annual best and worst states for business list. There is a link between the worst states for business and the best states for surety bonding.  Take California for instance.  California, in no matter what pole one looks at, is always considered one of the worse states for businesses.  This is absolutely true.  California is a state that has been taken over by the trial lawyers and the most liberal of liberals.  As such, the state as a whole legislates to the lowest common denominator.  The state uses legislation and rules to protect the dumbest of the dumbest, the one in a thousand, the needle in the haystack, rather than use any common sense.

So what does this have to do with surety bonds?  Here is an example: a few years ago it was discovered that a couple of unscrupulous car wash owners were taking the tips earned by workers and including the tips as part of the workers pay.  In some states, this practice might even be legal and even if it were not legal, most states would simply punish the offending car wash owner.  In California, the legislature has to protect those few that are getting abused by requiring all hand car washes to post a $15,000 surety bond.   I like carwash bonds, we write a bunch of them, but this is just one of hundreds of examples where an unfriendly business climate results in surety bond requirements and if one sells surety bonds for a living, that is not a bad thing.

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