Posts Tagged ‘Blue State’
Monday, August 27th, 2012
It’s late August, and California’s slide toward insolvency continues apace.
How badly underwater is CalPERS? Try $884 billion.
Speaking of California unions, here’s how they’re trying to block reform.
California’s recovery is much slower than the already slow pace of the rest of the nation.
Things have gotten so bad that Moody’s is rexamining the outlook on all California cities.
What California should learn from Wisconsin.
CalTrans spends $22.5 million on unneeded home repairs, with a hefty side-helping of graft. (Hat tip: Dwight)
So what happened to all those Solyndra glass tubes? Can you say modern art?
Texas snags it’s lowest bond interest rate ever at 0.225%. That makes sense. Broke ass California getting a 0.43% rating doesn’t.
Texas has five of the ten fastest growing counties (including Williamson).
California’s “urban forest” offset scam.
Tags:Blue State, Budget, California, environmentalism, Obama Scandals, Red State, Solyndra, Texas, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Global Warming, Obama Scandals, Texas, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Thursday, August 16th, 2012
Looks like California has done such a good dog of screwing the pooch that I may have to start doing these roundups weekly:
Although bankrupt, California is about to add another outrageous benefit to its already bloated pension plan.
The Road Warrior‘s future as California’s present.
Creditor demands that Stockton reduce it’s outrageous pension plans.
In deed, CalPERs and state and local governments have combined to screw both taxpayers and bond-holders.
Hermosa Beach meter maids make make nearly $100,000 a year.
Could Fresno be the next California city to declare bankruptcy?
That is, unless the next California city to declare bankruptcy is Los Angeles.
Tags:bankruptcy, Blue State, Budget, California, CalPERs, fraud, Fresno, Hermosa Beach, Los Angeles, Red State, Stockton, Texas, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Economics, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Friday, August 10th, 2012
Time for another look at how Texas’ Red State model stacks up against California’s Blue State model, with a roundup of relevant news from the past few weeks.
Here’s a roundup of California’s dysfunction. Lots of tasty tidbits, including this gem: “California has both the highest state deficit in the country and the highest personal income tax.”
The Summer California Went Bankrupt.
California was counting their Facebook chickens before they hatched.
How California’s green energy delusions are impoverishing the entire state.
How California drove XCOR to Texas.
George Will on California’s high speed rail insanity. “At one point, an estimate of 44 million riders a year—subsequently revised downward, substantially—assumed gasoline costing $40 a gallon.”
California can’t even keep run it’s own prisons.
Texas tax revenues are up 10%.
Texas is going through a craft brewing boom.
While commuter rail isn’t cost effective in California, the Long Beach-to-Los Anegles Blue Line is good for one thing: killing people. (Hat Tip: Dwight.)
And while California schools are in crises to pay their bloated pensions, Beaumont’s school district actually instituted a tax cut and gave teacher’s a pay raise.
Tags:Blue State, California, economy, Red State, Texas, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Economics, Texas, Welfare State | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
Spent most of the day checking things off my list and web-surfing Creepy Pasta. So here’s a quick roundup of Texas vs. California tidbits:
A ballot initiative could derail the union stranglehold over California.
Among all states, Texas has the most adequately funded pension plan.
Endemic corruption in California cities.
California tosses another $4.7 billion down the high speed rail rathole. Hell, even Mother Jones says that it’s a money-wasting boondoggle.
Texas has a market that works just fine for electricity when government lets it: “California pretended to have a deregulated electricity market, but it was really a poorly designed, government-controlled system that eventually collapsed under its own weight. Texas’ economy is outperforming the rest of the country because we put fewer burdens on markets. This is why Texas has the most competitive and successful electricity market in the United States, if not the world. If we let it work, the world-class Texas electricity market will power Texas’ future.”
You know, if I were looking to save money, eliminating the state’s open meeting law is about the last thing I would cut. California at every level government needs more transparency, not less. (That probably true for the other 56 49 states as well.)
Obama continues his efforts to harsh California’s buzz by shutting down the state’s largest marijuana dispensary.
Finally, I want to note that Dwight has created a tag to track all mentions of the No Longer Golden State on his blog, so you can read his roundups on police incompetence, municipal corruption, and bankrupt locales such as Vernon, Bell, San Bernardino, Cudahy, Maywood, and Zalgo.
⁄€#¢fifl‡•( ‹›fifl‡° °··‚‚
Tags:Blue State, Budget, California, Crime, Economics, fraud, Texas, unions, War on Drugs, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Crime, Democrats, Economics, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Thursday, June 28th, 2012
Today brings news that Austin just surpassed San Francisco in population to become the 13th largest city in the country. In fact, Texas had six of the top seven fastest growing cities over the past 14 months: Round Rock, Austin, Plano, McKinney, Frisco, and Denton placed 2-7, topped only by a post-Katrina New Orleans. And at only 7,000-odd residents behind Jacksonville and Indianapolis, expect Austin to be the 11th largest city in the country the next time this list is updated.
And that news gives me a great excuse to to another roundup of Texas vs. California!
“Texas has been doing very well. If you draw a triangle whose points are Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, enclosing Austin, you’ve just drawn a map of the economic and jobs engine of North America.”
“California may be dreaming, but Texas is working. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, from 2000 to 2010, California lost a net of 519,600 jobs while Texas gained 1,093,600 jobs.” Lots of additional statistics here make the case for the measurable superiority of Texas’ Red State model over California’s Blue State model.
And they brought their incomes and assets with them. And there are plenty of reasons to move to Texas:
Lest you think this is some kind of fluke, or that taxes are not the determining factor in this “escape from NY and California,” it isn’t just Texas that is gaining all these fleeing residents. The U.S. Census reported that all of the top 15 states for population growth during the past decade are no tax or low tax states like Nevada, Florida, Arizona, Utah, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. It seems Americans are smarter than politicians give them credit for- they are voting with their feet for lower taxes, pro business attitude, and more economic freedom.
Because no state in the union has a better economy, let’s look “up close and personal” at the Texas miracle. Texas practices what I proudly call “Wild West Cowboy Capitalism.” And it works!
Texas has zero state income tax, zero capital gains taxes, and zero death taxes. It is a “right to work” state where employees may choose to join a union, but are never forced to. It is pro business and anti-lawyer (discouraging class action lawsuits and the first state to pass a “Loser Pays” law). Texas is also tight-fisted with welfare and entitlement benefits- unlike New York and California. The result of this limited government attitude is people with high incomes, assets, and ambition are moving into Texas, while those who lack work ethic, and feel entitled to handouts are moving out. Good riddance.
But the most important attribute of Texas is that its constitution limits the time that politicians can meet. The Texas Legislature is limited to meeting only 4 months every other year. That pretty much explains everything. Texas and my state of Nevada have no state income taxes and the fastest growing populations in America…not in spite of, but because the politicians aren’t allowed to sit in their seats all year long thinking of new ways to re-distribute income, impede business, and destroy jobs.
How red tape strangles job creation in California.
Tort reform has resulted in a 44% increase in the number of doctor’s in Texas since 2003, or twice the population increase.
Texas factory orders up in May.
California’s pension crisis continues to fester, and Democrats appear to be unwilling to grapple with the issue. (And here’s more on the pension bomb from Walter Russell Mead.)
Gary Farmer, head of the Austin Economic Development Corp. tells California audience exactly how Austin lures business from their state. “The key reason for the state’s success in luring business from other locations is a better political and regulatory climate, he added. Texas has a corporate tax of 1 percent on adjusted gross receipts, while California’s is 8.84 percent of income. Texas has no personal income tax while California’s is 9.3 percent.”
Finally, speaking of California transplants, In-and-Out Burger is headed to Round Rock.
Tags:Blue State, Budget, California, Denton, Economics, Frisco, Gary Farmer, McKinney, Plano, Red State, Round Rock, Texas, tort reform, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Economics, Texas, Welfare State | 1 Comment »