It seems lately that all roads lead to Texas: lowest unemployment rate in the nation, no income tax, no corporate tax, and a fisty governor to boot snubbing almost any laws coming from DC: gun control, immigration, healthcare, oil drlling and even the FDA's stance on stem cells.
In California on the other hand, the hay days of the Gold Rush are long gone. People are leaving in drabs for all the opposite reasons why they are heading for Texas: unemployment 9%, same as income and corporate tax (Herman King's 999? Not). The cost of regulations in CA is a staggering $134,000 per annum for small businesses and climbing! That has got to be worse than the Malibu mud slides, the LA smog, the Palo Alto earthquake and the statewide wildfires combined.
The demographic shift will likely intensify from the East also. Lots of disheartened people after Sandy in New York and New Jersey. In the former school bus drivers are holding 150000 students and their parents hostage as they think it is fair that the cost for transporting each student is $7000 per year.
In New Jersey, residential property taxes keep getting higher and higher as commercial real estate is very depressed and companies are filing appeals and receiving hefty rebates. Since town budgets are at best the same, the residents have to pay the shortfall. If your kids are in private school, you are senior, single or empty nester, you still have to pay the same property tax which includes a considerable chunk for public schools . So if you have 3 kids or more, move to Jersey and put them all in public school. You would pay the same property tax rate if you buy, and absolutely nothing if you rent! It is like communal living because everybody else will be chipping in to educate your kids. Ain't that great!
Of course if everybody and his brother moves to Texas, there maybe just enough room for them all because it is the largest state after Alaska. Some would drill baby drill, some City Slickers will drive cattle, some corporate types will build a Dynasty ("A conscience is like a boat or a car. If you feel you need one, rent it" JR Ewing). I guess the next step for Texans would be to seek secession from the Union. Some are already signing petitions as we speak. Conventional wisdom recommends "if you can't beat them join them!" but not for the citizens of the Lone Star State. Their motto is: "If you can't beat them, leave them". Is the USA going to disintegrate like the Soviet Union or Yougoslavia? God forbid, but I think that the Southern states are a bit fed up with DC and they are exercising whatever leverage they can muster.
All the above and more features like those sexy hats and boots, the Golf of Mexico, and the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders are why:
The Lone Star State is Now Big Star State... and Future Shooting Star State
