Ahhhh Texas beating California

[Dick Seibert]

When it comes to job growth, Texas has once again defeated economic rival California, according to research released at the end of last week by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a non-profit free-market research institute.

TPPF found that Texas, the second most populated state, created 129,000 new jobs in the past year, while California recorded a decline of 112,000 during the same period.

The research institute’s report, entitled “Competitive States 2010: Texas vs. California,”was showcased during the luncheon of the “Keeping Texas Competitive Summit” in San Antonio. The report updates the scoreboard from a 2008 report that compares the two states on six broad categories proven to affect a state’s economic competitiveness: taxes on labor, taxes on capital, taxes on consumption, overall tax environment, regulatory environment, and government spending policies.

“A comparison between Texas and California is not only valid but vital for our country,” said Dr. Arthur Laffer, one of the authors of the TPPF report. “Both are large, strategically located states, with strong demographics and bountiful natural resources. But California’s regulatory and tax costs, coupled with budgetary and policy instability, render it an impotent competitor when standing next to low-tax, business-friendly Texas, which levies no capital gains or income taxes to support its affordable government.”

A representative of California was quick to respond to the data. “If Californians still have trouble understanding why so many of our former neighbors have ‘Gone To Texas,’ this scorecard spells it out in painful detail,” said Sally C. Pipes, President & CEO of the California-based Pacific Research Institute. “We must dramatically overhaul our tax and regulatory policies if the Golden State is ever to regain its former luster.”¹

I thought we were sending a lot of our lefties down to Austin to counteract this.

¹ http://justjobs.com/employmentnews/t...nomic-rivalry/

[Joe Adams]

Recent campaign ad from Texas Governor Rick Perry:

“Texas is on the right path. As your governor, job creation is my top priority. Since I took office, Texas has added more than 850,000 new jobs. In fact, since 2005, 80 percent of the new private sector jobs in America were created right here in Texas. Texas is on the right track. Low taxes, balanced budget, and strong public schools make Texas the number one state for job creation."

[Dick Seibert]

Our AB32 (Global warming law) is killing us, they said that "green technology" would replace industry, but it's moving to China. Last year in driving to San Jose I noticed that a whole bunch of new industrial buildings were going up by the freeway, I wondered who would be building in this economic environment it was Solyndra:

But as the companies finally begin mass production -- Solyndra just flipped the switch on a $733 million factory in Fremont last month -- they are finding that the economics of the industry have already been transformed -- by China. Chinese manufacturers, heavily subsidized by their own government and relying on vast economies of scale, have helped send the price of conventional solar panels plunging and grabbed market share far more quickly than anyone anticipated.

As a result, the California companies, once so confident that they could outmaneuver the competition, are scrambling to retool their strategies and find niches in which they can thrive.

"The solar market has changed so much it's almost enough to make you want to cry," said Joseph Laia, chief executive of MiaSolé. "We have spent a lot more time and energy focusing on costs a year or two before we thought we had to."

The challenges come despite extensive public and private support for the Silicon Valley companies. Solyndra, one of the biggest companies, has raised more than $1 billion from investors. The federal government provided a $535 million loan guarantee for the company's new robot-run, 300,000-square-foot solar panel factory, known as Fab 2.

"The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra," President Barack Obama said in May during an appearance at the then-unfinished factory. But during the year that Solyndra's plant was under construction, competition from the Chinese helped drive the price of solar modules down 40 percent. Solyndra rushed to start cranking out panels Sept. 13, two months ahead of schedule, and it has increased marketing efforts to make the case to customers that Solyndra's more expensive panels are cost-effective when installation charges are factored in.¹

We have an initiative on the Nov 2 ballot to suspend AB32, the eco-freaks are saying it is sponsored by the big Texas oil companies, but the eco groups are outspending the "Big Texas Oil Companies" 3 to 1.

Opponents of Proposition 23, the ballot measure that would suspend California's landmark global warming legislation, have long argued that supporters of the measure were prepared to flood the state with money for the initiative.

But with little more than two weeks until the Nov. 2 election, that flood has yet to materialize. And the No on 23 campaign -- a coalition that includes environmentalists, venture capitalists, social justice groups and some of Silicon Valley's hottest cleantech companies -- is outpacing Yes on 23 in fundraising by more than a 2-1 ratio.

Donations of $1,000 or more must be filed with the California Secretary of State's Office within a 24-hour period, so fundraising tallies fluctuate daily. As of 1 p.m. Thursday, Yes on 23 had raised $9.1 million, while the various committees working to defeat Prop. 23 had raised $19.6 million, according to MAPLight.org, a nonpartisan research organization that tracks the influence of money on politics.

If you subtract the $2 million that Yes on 23 had to spend to gather signatures to put the measure on the ballot, the disparity is closer to 3-to-1.²

Joe we're broke, all Texans should send money to California to help pass Prop 23, otherwise we'll send more eco-freaks down there, you wouldn't want those crazies down there, would you?


¹ http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_1...nclick_check=1
² http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_1...costatimes.com

[Ottoman]

If only there was some lesson the rest of the country could learn from this. Well I don't have time to ponder it. I have to figure out a way to earn more money to pay my taxes without the cost of adding another employee. Geez, I just wish there was something to here to learn.

[David Meiland]

The Chinese have a state-run economy, tens of millions of workers willing to work long hours in miserable conditions for almost nothing, they pour toxic waste on the ground, and they've refused to float their currency. And here's the kicker--Western consumers are buying their goods by the boatload, while complaining about lost jobs and prices they can't match. Someone tell me what the problem is again?

[MarkMc]

Someone tell me what the problem is again?

Not having the right think tank to tell you what the problem is.

[parkwest]

Someone once said something about a giant sucking sound...

[Overbuilders]

Someone tell me what the problem is again?

Over regulation.

[whiskytangofoxtrot]

Someone tell me what the problem is again?

It's Bush's fault.

[GregBradley]

And if "Moonbeam" gets elected each person who actually works for a living in California will have to support two government "workers", one person on unemployment, and one person on welfare. Not that the other idiot is a great choice, either. Kind of like the last federal elections.............

[Dick Seibert]

Man I hope not, it was Governor Moonbeam who pushed through and signed the bill legalizing unions for the government employees, even Franklin Roosevelt and George Meany agreed that it would be impossible to function if government employees were unionized.

[Lavrans]

Man I hope not, it was Governor Moonbeam who pushed through and signed the bill legalizing unions for the government employees, even Franklin Roosevelt and George Meany agreed that it would be impossible to function if government employees were unionized.

Welcome back Cotter!

Welcome back to the '70s, Dick!

The '70's without smoking, red meat or campfires.

What fun.

[swbuilder]

Someone once said something about a giant sucking sound...

Was that the same guy who used the phrase "Gorilla Dust"?

[swbuilder]

The Chinese have a state-run economy, tens of millions of workers willing to work long hours in miserable conditions for almost nothing, they pour toxic waste on the ground, and they've refused to float their currency. And here's the kicker--Western consumers are buying their goods by the boatload, while complaining about lost jobs and prices they can't match. Someone tell me what the problem is again?

What if we just quit buying their goods, then doubled our money supply so we can pay them back with a devalued currency? Hyperinflation? Bust the bond bubble?