Texas Liberal Activist Government Picking Winners

[3rdnlng]

I don't have a huge issue with a state that can actually pay for something that will have a positive ROI.

 

40 million for 5000 well paying jobs is paid back quickly in sales tax, increased real estate tax and other things like more licensing fees. California, the way things are presently set up will only have industries that cater to their state and nearby interests, other than the ports.

[TakeYouToTasker]

 

 

I don't have a huge issue with a state that can actually pay for something that will have a positive ROI.

I don't think anyone would oppose government activism under those circumstances. The problem is that governments aren't run like businesses, and aren't comprised of business people. Governments are run by politicians who are more concerned with messaging than bottom lines, and they aren't investing their own money, so losses aren't necessarily of consequence. As a result, governments tend to do a very poor job with these sorts of things, which is why people oppose it.

Edited May 2, 2014 by TakeYouToTasker

[Joe Miner]

I don't think anyone would oppose government activism under those circumstances. The problem is that governments aren't run like businesses, and aren't comprised of business people. Governments are run by politicians who are more concerned with messaging than bottom lines, and they aren't investing their own money, so losses aren't necessarily of consequence. As a result, governments tend to do a very poor job with these sorts of things, which is why people oppose it.

 

Not disagreeing with that.

 

I am pretty sure if I looked at the state budget of Texas I could find dozens of areas where they wasted money that would make me more upset than this.

 

I have more trust my 4 year old to handle money than I do Govt on any level.

 

If I was a state Govt I'd make sure my state was a great place financially for a company to do business, and then I'd start poaching stable and successful companies from states like CA.

 

Is not picking winners. It's identifying existing winners and relocating them to your state.

[B-Man]

Wretched Refuse

 

By Kevin D. Williamson

 

It’s no surprise that more of the people who move to Texas come from California than from any other state; more of the people who move to California come from Texas than from any other state. California, Texas, Florida, and New York exchange a great many people among themselves, because they have a great many people to exchange.

 

What is interesting in the IRS data is this: The people moving from California to Texas have significantly higher incomes than those making the opposite trek: about $56,000 per tax return for the Texas-bound vs. about $50,000 per tax return for the California-bound. And that doesn’t even take into account the radically different cost of living in the two places: The median home in Texas sells for $128,000 vs. $383,900 in California, $124,700 in Houston vs. $470,000 in Los Angeles. The median California home costs 6.25 times the median California household income, while the median Texas home costs 2.48 times the median Texas household income. Those people moving to Texas are getting a big raise in real terms; the ones moving to California are taking a pay cut. For young people, the lifetime returns to Texas’s lower cost of living can be substantial: Even an extra $2,500 a year in savings throughout your twenties means a couple of hundred thousand more in your retirement account at 65.

 

Perhaps more significant, the typical person moving to California (total domestic and foreign migration) makes about $13,000 less than does the average established California household, whereas the typical Texas transplant lags the state’s average by only about $6,000. Movers tend to be younger people, earlier in their careers with lower incomes, but the ones moving to Texas will have less catching up to do. Also of interest: Foreign immigrants to California have lower incomes than the average, but foreign immigrants to Texas have substantially higher incomes than the average — nearly $12,000 more.

 

Bottom line: In the 2010-2011 exchange of residents between Texas and California, Texas came out $379 million ahead in AGI. It does not seem likely that that trend will be reversed when data for more recent years is available.

 

California: Give them your poor, your huddled masses yearning to pay the nation’s highest personal income tax, highest sales tax, second-highest gasoline tax . . .