Posted on 06/07/2006 9:30:05 AM PDT by GoldwaterFellow
Austin’s Powers by Noah Clarke June 7, 2006
Tucson shouldn’t be so down, things in Austin aren’t that great
Eeyore would feel right at home in Tucson. Arizona’s second city has become a rather gloomy place.
Tucson policymakers fear Tucson lacks a “vibrant core” and will never attract creative class workers that supposedly drive economic growth. If only we were more like Austin, they opine.
According to the Tucson Citizen, the Texas capitol has “rhythm and synergy;” it has a cool music scene, a hip downtown. All true, but if the goal is economic growth and jobs, Tucson is doing more things right than Austin.
Entrepreneurs, not hot nightclubs, generate economic growth. And entrepreneurs want affordable housing, cheap electricity, safe neighborhoods, low taxes and few government regulations.
Tucson fits this bill. According to Inc. Magazine’s 2006 Best Cities for Doing Business ranking, Tucson ranks 60. Austin came in 173, behind such boomtowns as Amarillo, Des Moines and Rochester.
Austin is actually losing population while Tucson’s is growing. And Austin’s economic centerpiece, a new Samsung microchip plant, only happened after the city, county and state committed to give the electronics giant $233 million.
This is no model. Tucson can improve its economic outlook by lowering the city’s sales and property taxes and streamlining the business licensing process. This would give the city more energy than even the best espresso café.
Noah Clarke is an economist with the Goldwater Institute Center for Economic Prosperity.
Tucson is the boil on the bottom of AZ. I like the fact that it's between me and the border.
Tucson yeah great economy with all the illegals in their town. Right.
Come to Austin and we will prove otherwise.
Shouldn't that be from the GoldMEMBER Institute?
Anytime liberals run things, you can bet things will get worse.
Yeah. The traffic in Austin is now, officially, worse than the traffic in Dallas.
I knew Austin's business environment was cooling off when AMD decided to locate a new $3 billion plant in Singapore in 2004, rather than adding on to the campus in Austin. Plus, AMD took the valuable Celeron line away from Austin, moved it offshore, and left Austin with flash memory chips.
But does Austin have an Eegee's? I think not!
I wonder why the traffic is so high?
because we have the old people who lived here when it was just a hick town, and all the yankees are moving down here becasue we have JOBS. That is why we have traffic. Our crime rate is lower, our property taxes have been somewhat low (wish they were lower right now but what the hey) and of course last but not least, we have clean air without all the polution like Houston and D/FW.
That is why we have a better city. We do not have state income taxes like all the other states, and we actually have reps (R's) kay bailey just to name one that actually listen to the public. Not like tucson and arizona where they have the most illegals coming across the border than any other state. We have the biggest portion of the border and yet you have more cross over in arizona than you do TEXAS.
GOD BLESS TEXAS.
NFP
Doesn't Intel make the Celeron?
Actually, bad traffic doesn't necessarily correlate to growth. Ask Pittsburghers.
which is exactly why we have coined the phrase
KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD.
unless you live here (not directed at you) you would not know what that means
My brother lives there, we visit every now and then - kinda like going to the zoo, you know, for entertainment.
Of course it does. I was looking at the little Celeron thing on my laptop when I posted this.
That should read the Athlon chip.
Ironically, the first big semiconductor company to expand into Austin was Motorola (now Freescale). AMD and Intel came much later. IBM and Texas Instruments were there before Motorola, but not as semiconductor makers.
Here's what's ironic about Motorola coming to Austin: They were originally going to expand from Phoenix into Tucson. But then, top Moto brass found out that some middle managers were investing speculatively in Tucson real estate near the possible Moto sites. So, to cut them off at the knees, the HMFWICs nixed Tucson and reopened the search, settling this time on Austin.
Well, they finally opened up in ol' River City in 1974, or more precisely, just outside the eastern City Limit. They had a promise from the Austin City Fathers-and-Mothers that the plant site would not be annexed for X years (I don't recall how many). You can imagine what happened. It ended up inside the City within about 2.
Plus, their super-electron-thirsty semiconductor wafer fabs got stuck with some of the highest electric rates anywhere (courtesy, of course, of the City-owned "juice" racket).
I see, so you are not a supporter of local business then.
;)
IBM still manufactures RS 6000s (or as they're known now, the System P5) in Austin.
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