Lara Keel Texas Lobbyist Report: Texas vs. California
The following is a digest of a story that originally appeared on the Fox News Business website. Mike Toomey is posting this summary as a public service for other state lobbyists, political consultants, and interested parties.
In the last ten years, Texas’s population has grown at nearly double the national rate. Texas’s low taxes and regulations for businesses make it an attractive place for employers, and the low standard of living and taxes make it a place employees are willing to go. Many are moving themselves and their families to Texas to try to make a better life for themselves, and a great bulk of these people are coming from California. California has experienced a great deal of bankruptcy in the last decade or so.
“Both states have too many government workers–in fact, Texas has more than California. But California pays them so much more that California’s pensions are bleeding the state dry, says Dan Mitchell of the CATO Institute.”
California had a large population increase in the 1990’s, but that advantage has now gone to Texas. Texas now has the strongest economy in the United States, finding itself even in the top ranks of international economies.
Read the original story here.