Posted on 12/08/2006 12:56:41 PM PST by NormsRevenge
DALLAS (Reuters) - The Texan economy would have been almost $18 billion poorer in the last fiscal year without illegal immigrants who added to state coffers but were a drain on local government, says a report by the state comptroller.
The report -- billed as the first detailed look by a state at the impact of undocumented immigrants on its budget -- is likely to stir further debate on the emotional issue of illegal immigration in the United States.
The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that the United States had 11.1 million undocumented immigrants in 2005. Of these it said Texas accounted for between 1.4 million and 1.6 million.
Many Americans say illegal aliens -- mostly from Mexico -- take jobs from locals, depress wages and commit crimes. But many businesses say they fill a much needed gap in the labor market.
"The absence of the estimated 1.4 million undocumented immigrants in Texas in fiscal 2005 would have been a loss to our gross state product of $17.7 billion," said Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn.
The report says that would be a loss of 2.1 percent to the state's gross domestic product, which is the broadest measure of all goods and services produced in the state.
"Undocumented immigrants produced $1.58 billion in state revenues, which exceeded the $1.16 billion in state services they received. However, local governments bore the burden of $1.44 billion in uncompensated health care costs and local law enforcement costs not paid for by the state," Strayhorn added.
The net increase to state revenues came from payments such as sales taxes and user fees.
The report says removing illegal migrants from the state would lead to a tighter labor market and higher wages.
"Without the undocumented immigrant population, Texas' workforce would decrease by 6.3 percent. ... The most significant impact would be a noticeable tightening in labor markets," the report says.
"This tightening would induce increases in wages. ... While pay increases can be viewed as a positive social and economic development, when they rise due to labor shortages they affect economic competitiveness. In this case, it would be expressed as a modest decline in the value of Texas' exports," it adds.
Reuters takes a whack at report issued yesterday..
Study: Illegal immigrants boost economy, drain services ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1750234/posts
Posted by txroadkill
On News/Activism ^ 12/07/2006 8:47:26 PM PST · 33 replies · 577+ views
Ft. Worth Star-Telegram ^ | Dec. 07, 2006 | JOHN MORITZ
You mean, they didn't call it 'the non partisan Pew Hispanic Center'? Somebody's slipping. Sheesh.
Social Security is still viable only because of the hundreds of thousands of illegals paying federal and state taxes on phoney social security numbers.
This is free money to the government and that is the ONLY reason too many local, county, state and the federal governments don't give a damn about enforcing existing laws.
I guess it's OK as long as the economy is booming.
As a Statistics Phd. told us when we began the year long class:"Figures don't lie--but liars can figure"
These numbers are BULLS**T.
Not included are medical care costs, Service (Police Fire) costs, and incarceration costs.
I wonder how many billions of those dollars come from the illegal drug trade?
Gap? Is that what they call not having to pay benefits to illegals?, or the wages citizens demand?, or SSI?, or workers comp?. That the gap?
Right. The GAP is in the pockets of REAL taxpayers: LEGAL citizens, immigrant or otherwise.
Our Government is PANDERING to BUSINESSES who hire illegals and thumbing their nose at citizens
I've just about had...enough.
This might be true in TX but here in Calif. especially San Diego it is costing tax payers multi millions of dollars a year supporting the illegals here plus the high crime rate from the illegals.
Yikes!!
Just do the math. The State is WAY in the red.
BTW--I guess no $ gets sent "home" either?
Amen, money is King and will always trump the will of "we the people", if we allow it. Though I really don't know how we can counter men like President Bush, who would apparently prefer to lose their political support than to do the right thing and deport these illegals and build a 2,100 mile fence to keep them out.
No matter how much money these illegals pump into the economy, the amount they cost us in crime and government benefits will always offset it. Figure into this equation that fact that these illegals are causing serious harm to small businesses owned by American citizens, by underpricing them with lower labor charges, and the benefits vs. costs become disproportionate against the U.S. economy.
Small business is doing just fine.
95.5% employment in a country of 300 million people.
One reason some hospital ER's have closed and just one hospital here alone has lost over $60 million dollars in 3 years due to the illegals.
Most people in flyover country don't have a clue what is going on or don't want to.
"Carole Keeton Strayhorn"
She's either sadly mistaken or she's fudging the numbers for a job with the Perry Admin.
From http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/182250.php
"The Harris County Hospital District's unreimbursed costs of caring for illegal immigrants approached $100 million last year, a 77 percent increase in three years. "The costs are increasing because the population of undocumented immigrants is increasing and the cost of health care is rising," said hospital district spokesman Bryan McLeod. The unreimbursed costs rose from $55 million in 2002 to $97 million in 2005, the hospital district said in a report released Friday. Last year's figure represented 13 percent of the district's $760 million operating budget. The district treats about 300,000 patients annually, but lacks enough funds and facilities to care for all of the county's uninsured and underinsured residents, estimated to number between 800,000 and 1.2 million, McLeod said. Commissioner Steve Radack, who requested the report on the district's costs of treating undocumented immigrants, said county residents are shouldering a burden created by the federal government. The federal government doesn't prevent illegal immigration, but hardly reimburses local counties where the immigrants most frequently settle and use public health care facilities, he said. "The federal government allows people to come here illegally," Radack said. "Because of that the cost shouldn't fall on the local taxpayer." The district treated more than 57,000 illegal immigrants last year, at a cost of $128 million. The federal and state governments reimbursed about $28 million, and the patients themselves paid about $3 million. Over the past 11 years, the district has paid about $607 million in unreimbursed costs for treating undocumented immigrants. The district does not directly ask patients if they are in the country legally, but infers their status from other information gleaned during patient screenings, officials said.
That's just Harris county and just the hospital district. Imagine the cost of incarcerating, educating, housing, feeding, trials, jailing, covering uninsureds, on and on and on and on...... Now figure that for the entire state of Texas, $18 billion boost my A$$
That's the most bogus government statistic ever released. How many of those 'jobs' are adults who've been "downsized" or "outsourced" and have gone from $70K per year to flipping burgers, pumping gas or working for minimum wage at WalMart?
That said, I didn't mean small business in its literal form, which can be anywhere from one million to 10 million gross per year. I'm referring to those small landscaping and painting type businesses who are closing their businesses because the illegal mexicans are doing the same work for a fraction of what they need to charge. This is so because the illegals don't have to purchase insurance, pay taxes or provide any worker benefits.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.