Posted on 01/22/2013 7:53:11 AM PST by Kaslin
Texas is in much better shape than California. Taxes are lower, in part because Texas has no state income tax.
No wonder the Lone Star State is growing faster and creating more jobs.
And the gap will soon get even wider since California voters recently decided to drive away more productive people by raising top tax rates.
But a key challenge for all governments is controlling the size and cost of bureaucracies.
Government employees are probably overpaid in both states, but the situation is worse in California, as I discuss in a recent interview with John Stossel.
But being better than California is not exactly a ringing endorsement of Texas fiscal policy.
A column in today’s Wall Street Journal, written by the state’s Comptroller of Public Accounts, points out some worrisome signs.
As the chief financial officer of the nation’s second-largest state, even I have found it hard to get a handle on how much governments are spending, and how much debt they’re taking on. Every level of government is piling up incredible bills. And they’re coming due, whether we like it or not. Even in low-tax Texas, property taxes have risen three times faster than the inflation rate and four times faster than our population growth since 1992. Our local governments, meanwhile, more than doubled their debt load in the last decade, to more than $7,500 in debt for every man, woman and child in the state. In Houston alone, city-employee pension plans are facing an unfunded liability of $2.4 billion. But too many taxpayers aren’t given the information they need to make informed decisions when they vote debt issues. Recently I spent several months holding about 40 town-hall meetings with Texans across our state. Each time, I asked the attendees if they could tell me how much debt their local governments are carrying. Not a single person in a single town had this information.
In other words, taxpayers need to be eternally vigilant, regardless of where they live. Otherwise the corrupt rectangle of politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyists, and interest groups will figure out hidden ways of using the political process to obtain unearned wealth.
Dan Mitchell Comparing Excessive Bureaucrat Compensation in Texas and California
Essentially the same - difference is only in degree not in kind.
Sorry to hear that. I don’t find the same comparing my small town to nearby Houston. My property taxes followed the downturn in housing prices. We have a fairly decent pro-business attitude in our county.
“California has been republican, but it was never right wing and seriously Christian.”
Not true! For years ( years ago) I was a member of the California Republican Assembly. The CRA was ( and still is) very Conservative. At that time Orange County was as conservative a place as you would find anywhere. A lot of John Birch Society people were also in the CRA. Sadly, even Orange County isn’t so conservative any longer thanks to illegal immigration and more Liberal Migration from New York and Maryland. So I guess you think Ronald Reagan wasn’t a conservative? The other thing you make reference to is Christianity. I am a Christian myself, but it isn’t a litmus test for Conservatism for me. I know any number of Jews who are very conservative, other faiths as well. And when I see a post like yours, I think well I am dealing with someone whose religion trumps everything else. How is that different than the Muzzies? The so-called Christian Right would rather see Obama have another four years to instill Marxism, than vote for a decent man because he happens to be a Mormon. I don’t get it!
Then everyone's in agreement, because Democrats will be hunting Texans with FBI SWAT teams (Holder's Peeps).
It'd be interesting to see what happened, if a bunch of Texans ever mixed it up with the black-balaclava crowd.
In California it was the growers, 30 years ago, who demanded the INS stand aside so they could have illimitable cheap stoop labor. In Texas, it's big-rich homebuilders and low-wage employers (like grocer Walter Butts) who basically bribe guys like Gov. Rick Perry to keep the door open. It will have the same result.
I know California politics and Texas politics, and California has never been a right wing state, Texas is.
California has been republican, but never truly conservative, and it doesn’t have the dedicated Christians like Texas does, the “Evangelical” God warriors.
Look at your own post there, you go after “The so-called Christian Right” and compare the right-wing Evangelical voting block, the culture warriors, the only true enemies of the left, to “Muzzies”.
Your post shows how and why it was easy for the left to absorb you so easily, there was never even a serious battle for California, the left took it with barely a shot being fired.
You guys forget that Texas and California have the exact same percentage of Hispanics.
Same goes for Dallas County.
Especially when you take "Robin Hood" into account.
vette6387, if you want to send me nasty messages, do it on this thread, not in freepmail.
You sure are showing why California was so weak, and such easy prey to liberalism.
“vette6387, if you want to send me nasty messages, do it on this thread, not in freepmail.”
O.K. It’s not worth any more time trying to have a dialog with someone who has so little between the ears! It’s sad that Texas has you, but better Texas than California! Now, go back to your double wide and fry something!
I’m a contractor in California, I live here.
You really make it clear why California was such easy pickings for liberals.
You dislike it here so much, why not move to TX?
I’ll be moving soon, but it won’t change the disaster of California, California’s self destruction is just a fact, a reality.
California is not in a temporary valley, this has been going on for decades, and it is irreversible.
Life in California can still be very good, especially for the super rich, just as New York city can be for some, but as a whole, it is slipping deeper and deeper into permanent hell-hole status, a liberal nightmare.
Native and well-established Californians have been fleeing for many, many years, and their reasons are sound and rational.
ansel12: I’ll be moving soon
Too funny !
BTW, you might have missed it, but the same exact thing can be said for the entire country, regardless of what state you happen to call home. Ya best keep your running shoes on...
Fact is, traditional solutions to these government caused problems are no longer an option. You won't out run it, regards of your direction of travel.
What is funny about how liberals exploited weak, moderate, Evangelical lacking California?
I always knew that California wasn’t very conservative, but it is still a shocker at how meekly it submitted to the left.
I have seen so many native California friends flee California and find much better states to live in and state government to live under, that I know differently.
There is no reason for someone to remain in California when they can do so much better.
I'm not in to all those religions squabbles. Personally, I've heard enough about the pedophiles and perverted running the churches. CA problems are based and rooted in state government corruption and government unions and government retirement pensions. They'll eventually be broke...A good thing...And this needs to happen.
Good luck!
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