"Lessee..dicer, slicer, cleaver, filleter. Yup, all there. Ready to post. "
Posted on 11/01/2009 7:13:30 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Texas, increasingly, is the economic and intellectual leader of the U.S. During the last 18 months before the current recession took hold, while the country as a whole was still creating jobs, more than half of those jobs were created in a single state: Texas.
Texas has usurped the leadership position that, decades ago, belonged to California. Today California is in decline, likely irreversibly so. William Voegeli draws the sad but instructive comparison in the Los Angeles Times:
In America's federal system, some states, such as California, offer residents a "package deal" that bundles numerous and ambitious public benefits with the high taxes needed to pay for them. Other states, such as Texas, offer packages combining modest benefits and low taxes. These alternatives, of course, define the basic argument between liberals and conservatives over what it means to get the size and scope of government right. ...
California and Texas are not perfect representatives of the alternative deals, but they come close. Overall, the Census Bureau's latest data show that state and local government expenditures for all purposes in 2005-06 were 46.8% higher in California than in Texas: $10,070 per person compared with $6,858. ...
Confronted with a stark choice between government dominance and freedom, Americans are voting with their feet:
One way to assess how Americans feel about the different tax and benefit packages the states offer is by examining internal U.S. migration patterns. Between April 1, 2000, and June 30, 2007, an average of 3,247 more people moved out of California than into it every week, according to the Census Bureau. Over the same period, Texas had a net weekly population increase of 1,544 as a result of people moving in from other states. During these years, more generally, 16 of the 17 states with the lowest tax levels had positive "net internal migration," in the Census Bureau's language, while 14 of the 17 states with the highest taxes had negative net internal migration.
That's not hard to understand. As Voegeli says, "All things being equal, everyone would rather pay low taxes than high ones." So high-tax states like California have to be able to show that their taxes are somehow worth it:
Today's public benefits fail that test, as urban scholar Joel Kotkin of NewGeography.com and Chapman University told the Los Angeles Times in March: "Twenty years ago, you could go to Texas, where they had very low taxes, and you would see the difference between there and California. Today, you go to Texas, the roads are no worse, the public schools are not great but are better than or equal to ours, and their universities are good. The bargain between California's government and the middle class is constantly being renegotiated to the disadvantage of the middle class."
These judgments are not based on drive-by sociology. According to a report issued earlier this year by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., Texas students "are, on average, one to two years of learning ahead of California students of the same age," even though per-pupil expenditures on public school students are 12% higher in California. The details of the Census Bureau data show that Texas not only spends its citizens' dollars more effectively than California but emphasizes priorities that are more broadly beneficial. Per capita spending on transportation was 5.9% lower in California, and highway expenditures in particular were 9.5% lower, a discovery both plausible and infuriating to any Los Angeles commuter losing the will to live while sitting in yet another freeway traffic jam.
But those higher taxes in California must be going somewhere. Why aren't they benefiting those many thousands of citizens who are leaving the state for greener pastures?
In what respects, then, does California "excel"? California's state and local government employees were the best compensated in America, according to the Census Bureau data for 2006. And the latest posting on the website of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility shows 9,223 former civil servants and educators receiving pensions worth more than $100,000 a year from California's public retirement funds. The "dues" paid by taxpayers in order to belong to Club California purchase benefits that, increasingly, are enjoyed by the staff instead of the members.
No doubt similar studies in other high tax states, like my home state of Minnesota, would show the same thing: taxpayers aren't getting anything in particular for their money, likely less than citizens in other states, but public employees are doing very well indeed. This explains why public employees' unions have become the Democratic Party's most loyal supporters, while those who are not on the public employee gravy train increasingly are packing up their belongings and moving to lower-tax states like Texas.
The debate, really, is over. High-tax states don't deliver a better lifestyle--not for taxpayers, anyway. One of these days, voters will figure out that the same thing holds true at the national level. Higher taxes may be OK if you're a public employee; otherwise, they're a dead loss.
Wonder what role, if any, the full moon's playing? LOL
Whatever's responsible for instigating the playful disposition today, the woman does possess a great sense of humor, otherwise.
When harnessed to her raptor-like wit? Whooaaaa.
It's pure *love*. ;^) LOL
I just got an email from a female relative, who is a lurker on FR. She challenged me on my remarks about the increase in Californicanation’s increase in withholding. So here is the reference:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2375507/posts
Sacto’s Tricks - The Latest is 10% Less in Our Paychecks
Post Scripts ^ | 10/31/09 | Tina Grazier
Posted on Saturday, October 31, 2009 2:15:19 PM by OneVike
Our lawmakers have a trick for you this Halloween. Starting Sunday 10% more will be withheld from paychecks to cover the states $1.7 billion shortfall in the budget. They say it isn’t a tax increase, it’s just an interest free loan that we will recover in April when we file our taxes. Gee thanks guys, we all feel much better now.
“California to withhold a bigger chunk of paychecks,” by Shane Goldmacher and W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times
The provision is one of numerous maneuvers state lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved in the summer to paper over the state’s deficit. Many of the changes, including the extra withholding, were little noticed outside of Sacramento. ** Savvy taxpayers can get around the state’s maneuver by increasing the number of personal withholding allowances they claim on their employer tax forms, said Brenda Voet, a spokeswoman for the state’s Franchise Tax Board. ** “People can get out of this,” she said, noting that most people would have to change their allowances through their employers. California’s budget leaders are banking on the hope that most won’t. (emphasis mine)
But wait...isn’t this the same state government that continues to hire new workers and expand government even as the state’s population declines? Something is wrong with this picture...
“LIZ has her funny bone at full throttle today ;-)”
Liz is all ways ready to fillet the Governator at her full throttle rate, which is why I pinged her.
You can say all that,...and you are in Arkansas....ROFL!
ROFL!
“California is probably the most blessed state in the union when it comes to resources and weather. What is happening today is a prime example of what you can do to slowly ruin what God has given you.”
I will be 71 this week and my wife turns 70 next year. We are basically in excellent health. I’m retired and she works like a dog (her choice) three days a week.
We no longer can tolerate extreme heat or cold for long time periods and sometimes short time periods.
The N California climate in the Wineo country is excellent for us.
We have relatives out here, two adult sons, one DIL and our grandkids, nephews and nieces.
Also, we have great friends we have known for decades and a church that we love.
So we have no desires to move from California and will stay here fighting the extremists where and when possible.
Ahhhhhh a *liberal* lurker, Dave? LOL
"She challenged me on my remarks about the increase in Californicanation’s increase in withholding. So here is the reference:"
She may be your relative --& I mean no disrespect saying-- but she sure doesn't know you as well as I, Dave.
Else, she'd never have doubted you to start. ;^)
"Our lawmakers have a trick for you this Halloween. Starting Sunday 10% more will be withheld from paychecks to cover the states $1.7 billion shortfall in the budget. They say it isn’t a tax increase, it’s just an interest free loan that we will recover in April when we file our taxes."
Unbelievable.
Shows the liberal-for-not-much-longer paradise of WI could be much worse.
"Gee thanks guys, we all feel much better now."
BWWWWWWHAAA!!
A littler of that raptor-like wit yourself, huh.
Used to live in Susanville, years ago. At the base of Thompson's Peak, forget county. I've memories of that paradise of a place; nevertheless, in hindsight leaving's one of the better moves of my life. What a damned shame, a genuine pity what's happened to the once magnificent state of CA.
Y'know, Dave?
A solid argument could be mounted to crown our precious Liz "Miss Ginsu 2009". The spin's easy, leave it to me: "She slices, she dices and when really agitated fillets!" ;^) LOL
I've this naggin' notion I'm about to learn exactly how deep her funny streak runs. LOL
If I were 71, I would have stayed too. But in 06, I sold out and left. Besides you have family, friends and a good church.
100% agreement.
"Lessee..dicer, slicer, cleaver, filleter. Yup, all there. Ready to post. "
Occasionally we Arkansans have to come down there to Texas when the Razorbacks are showing Texas football teams how to play the game. It’s kind of an “outreach” program.
parsy, who is a proud Razorback!
California tomatoes, of course.
Heck no. We ain’t like them redneck Texas folks. In Arkansas, we DO NOT decorate our drive ways with dead cow skulls. The little lanes into our mobile homes have a half-buried tire on each side with reflectors like any person of taste and breeding would have.
parsy, who is from high class Arkansas
“Besides you have family, friends and a good church.”
Those blessings plus Free Republic and Fox News enables me/us to put up with the liberal evil around us.
That reality drives her mother nuts, and I often get called in to bring the unbeliever back down to earth.
She is not 40 years old yet, and some of the liberal thought patterns are hard to break. However, she will not bet money with me any more when I announce what the liberals are doing like this increase in tax with holding in Cali land.
Be careful don't agitate our Liz. Liz might want to use your phrase as her tagline: "She slices, she dices and when really agitated, fillets!"
See?! See?!
C'mere. Bend over, get'cher well earned tiara.
And we're not talking about Queen For A Day here, either. ;^)
"California tomatoes, of course."
Of course, California grown no less.
With my rear-side still intact, I feel like the real *winner*!! LOL
“but I do recall hearing that some prominent person had endorsed Kay’s campaign. I was surprised.”
me too, it was Dick Chaney
Textbook case of denial, huh.
You're certainly not alone, Dave.
If you only knew the cross I've had to bear over the 32 years of wedded bliss to my bride and her leftist family. Oy vey. ;^)
"That reality drives her mother nuts..."
And why not. Her mother loves her daughter. Cares about her life, her future. A parent's burden, unseen.
"...and I often get called in to bring the unbeliever back down to earth."
Sayyyyyy, didn't William Peter Blatty write a famous novel addressing this kind of intervention?
Be careful my friend, while she'll grow out of it sooner or later? Many of us like you, have enjoyed reading your thoughts just as you are. :^)
"She is not 40 years old yet, and some of the liberal thought patterns are hard to break."
Uh-huh. The *new* 20, eh?
And they talk about cigarette addiction.
This Liberal-Socilaist brainwashing runs right to the core. This I know. Been there, done that 'til my epiphany around ~1993. Haven't been the same man, since. Took forever to turn my wife, too. But you know what they say, right? "There's no more militant crusader then the reformed sinner.". {~or something close... :o) }
"However, she will not bet money with me any more when I announce what the liberals are doing like this increase in tax with holding in Cali land."
OK.
An idea.
Offer her the money to cover the wager. See what she does. Liberals, other's money, y'know. IF she accepts it'd be a *splendid* teaching moment. LOL
"Be careful don't agitate our Liz."
Who?
Moi?
You think I'm crazy, don'tcha. :^)
"Liz might want to use your phrase as her tagline: 'She slices, she dices and when really agitated, fillets!'"
HA!!
I'd be honored.
Not to worry, though.
The woman's mind comes up with much more salient, bone-cutting "in yo' face" stuff and more often than anything my feeble mind w/could ever conjure on my best day. LOL ;^)
<<
I’m not in Cal., but in Oregon. Texas looks more attractive by the day. Certainly cheaper than moving to another country.
>>
Dude, from Oregon to Texas *is* moving to a different country.
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.