Americans fleeing high tax, union-dominated states
No
HEAD: Low-tax states will gain seats, high-tax states will lose them
By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Migration from high-tax states to states with lower taxes and less government spending will dramatically alter the
composition of future Congresses, according to a study by Americans for Tax Reform
Eight states are projected to gain at least one congressional seat under reapportionment following the 2010 Census: Texas
(four seats), Florida (two seats), Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington (one seat each). Their
average top state personal income tax rate: 2.8 percent.
By contrast, New York and Ohio are likely to lose two seats each, while Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan,
Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania will be down one apiece. The average top state personal income tax rate in these loser
states: 6.05 percent.
The state and local tax burden is nearly a third lower in states with growing populations, ATR found. As a result, per capita
government spending is also lower: $4,008 for states gaining congressional seats, $5,117 for states losing them.
And, as ATR notes, “in eight of ten losers, workers can be forced to join a union as a condition of employment. In 7 of the 8
gainers, workers are given a choice whether to join or contribute financially to a union.”
Imagine that: Americans are fleeing high tax, union-dominated states Americans are fleeing high tax, union-dominated states
and settling in states with lower taxes, right-to-work laws and lower government spending. Nothing sends a message like
voting with your feet.
************
THAT NEEDS REPEATING: Americans are fleeing high tax, union-dominated states Americans are fleeing high tax, union-dominated
states and settling in states with lower taxes, right-to-work laws and lower government spending.
++++++++++
VOX POPULI FROM THE SITE
Let's hope the people migrating leave their voting ideals behind as well or these low tax states will turn into the high tax
environment the people are leaving. When you move to a low tax state you need to vote in ways that keep that state a low tax
state and not vote for people who want to extend taxes and such. Make sense? My nephew loves MN gov't - high taxes, brutal
taxes and regulations on business. Now he wants to move to low tax state but if he takes his commie socialist voting patterns
with him, he will defeat his reason for moving.
--------------
You are so right! When I moved back to Ohio in the early nineties, Ohio was considered a lower tax state. Because of that, a
lot of businesses moved here from the East Coast bringing with them liberal employees. These people did bring their voting
patterns (and obnoxious driving habits) with them and in no time Ohio moves from around #37 in taxation to #7 and at one time
was higher than Massechusetts! Not only did state income tax rise, but also local income taxes and property taxes. At least
this year voting has turned out a lot of tax and spenders, but who knows whether or not they can turn things around.
-------------
They aren't! They are bringing their stupid beliefs with them. They do not learn from failure.
-------------
Additionally, in the eight states that are gaining seats, half of them have NO state income tax: TX, FL, NV, and WA. Why,
it's as if people don't like oppressive taxation! How crazy is THAT, right?
-------------
Gee whiz, I'll bet the same thing would happen to our country, if US tax rates would drop and regulations would be reduced -
more business would come to the US, bringing jobs, which would bring buying power, which would increase income, which would
increase taxes paid to governments, which could help to pay for better services, education, etc. and reduce deficits. What a
concept! Pass this along. Maybe it will catch on.
**********
Yep, let's keep thast good thought!
"The biggest enemy, the biggest obstacle that working middle-class America has, is government spending."--Steve Wynn
"The Democrat Party is now an agent of European soft socialism -- not the sort that wishes to own the means of production,
but the model that wants taxes very high, and to make public benefits ubiquitous, if not very satisfactory." --Hugh Hewitt
"For too long, Washington has taken our country in the wrong direction: bigger government, reckless spending and run away
debt."-Marco Rubio
"Insanity is when you keep voting Democrat and hoping for a better result."-Author Unknown
11-03-10: One step back from the abyss of Obama-ism
No surrender!
Dionysus
Michael Coburn
Ah yes.... More pig swill. Americans are leaving the rust belt and
seeking employment anywhere they can find it. It is factual that
employers are leaving high tax states for lower taxed states. And as the
states are all independent as to how they tax and how they provide
services then the movement is quite rational. It is also factual that
states with less labor protections will appeal to businesses. And why
this is such a woody for the conservative nut cases is easy to see. It
reeks of authoritarianism and despotism and devalues the working class in
every way. Here in Washington State, the conserva-morons defeated an
income tax that would only be assesses on incomes over $250k in favor of
keeping other taxes. The stupidity continues. Oregon, with a state
income tax and no sales tax, offers risk pool health insurance 30% less
than what we pay in Washington state. The Republicans will always lie
about taxation. Not about the amount, but about the use of the money.
The Republican wants everyone to believe that tax proceeds are burned in
a furnace and that government provides nothing for the dollars paid. The
states with the best economies are the states with higher property taxes
and lower transaction taxes (income and sales taxes). And the level of
per capita taxation actually maps to population density. That is because
larger masses of people DEMAND more government provided infrastructure.
--
"Senate rules don't trump the Constitution" -- http://GreaterVoice.org/60
Ron Peterson
> HEAD: Low-tax states will gain seats, high-tax states will lose them
> By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Sure, I want to move to a low-tax state, but often those states have
other problems making them undesirable.
Some states have the advantage of having geological resources like oil
and gas that allow them to reduce taxes without cutting services and
it makes sense to take advantage of those states.
--
Ron
ray
<e1cfa249-3106-4905...@o2g2000vbh.googlegroups.com>,
Ron Peterson <r...@shell.core.com> wrote:
Living in Ohio, the decade old myth is that people from other states
will come up here because we have all the water. So not many paid
attention to our taxes which constantly went up. Now we find that there
is no truth or hope in that philosophy, and Cleveland was the number one
city for depopulation two years ago. In the last five years, Cleveland
was rated the poorest city twice in those five years.
They have also found that states with the lowest taxes had better
unemployment numbers and new businesses opening up. Without a doubt,
there is always something positive when it comes to lower taxation.
--
Barock Insane Obama: The greatest joke America ever played on itself.
Nickname unavailable
they are fleeing texas its so bad there.
Nickname unavailable
> In article
> <e1cfa249-3106-4905-a44d-ac0e0b036...@o2g2000vbh.googlegroups.com>,
that is a lie. texas is in a economic fee fall, with workers leaving
in desperation looking for work anywhere.
Nickname unavailable
first it was announced last march that texas was 10 billion in the
hole, then it went up to 18 billion, then 21 billion, the latest an
counting is 25 billion in the hole.
low tax low regulation free market paradise texas finances are in a
dismal state:Sales taxes, which generate half the state’s revenue
declined 13 percent in the first quarter of the fiscal year that began
Sept. 1
sales taxes are directly tied to demand, demand is wage driven. so
lets lay off more workers, slash more taxes, and that will balance the
budget. and the results will be:)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=a.a.ZmJ0C9vU
Texas Governor Perry Faces Off Against Sen. Hutchison (Update1)
By Darrell Preston
March 2 (Bloomberg) -- Texas Governor Rick Perry, who led lawmakers in
closing a 2003 budget deficit, faces off in today’s primary election
against U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who vows to combine
agencies as the state confronts a spending gap that may swell to $10
billion.
Republican voters in the second most-populous state will choose among
Perry, 59, the longest-serving governor in Texas history and the front-
runner in polls; Hutchison, 66; and Debra Medina, 47, a Tea Party
movement activist. Democrat candidates include former Houston Mayor
Bill White, 55, who is ahead in the polls; and Houston business owner
Farouk Shami, 67.
Even with a deficit that may be the largest in seven years, Texas
bonds have yields below Nevada, which has the same AA+ rating from
Standard & Poor’s. Neither state has income tax. A Texas general
obligation bond maturing in 2020 traded last week at an average yield
of 3.1 percent, compared with 3.96 percent for a 10-year Nevada bond
that traded on Feb. 17, according to Municipal Securities Rulemaking
Board data.
“Texas bonds are pretty well respected compared to other places,” said
Colby Harlow, who oversees $125 million as president of Harlow Capital
Management LLC in Dallas. “I don’t think it matters who wins as long
as it’s a Republican,” said Harlow, who said he considers the party
most likely to maintain the state’s rainy-day reserve fund.
Tax Revenue Falls
Texas’s sales-tax revenue began to drop a year ago amid the worst
recession since the 1930s. The state may have to tap its reserve fund
for the first time in five years to bridge the first deficit since
2003, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst said in an interview last
month. S&P cited the $8 billion fund as a strength when it lifted
Texas’s rating in August by one level, to the second-highest ranking.
Accessing the reserve requires a two-thirds vote from both houses of
the Legislature.
Sales taxes, which generate half the state’s revenue, declined 13
percent in the first quarter of the fiscal year that began Sept. 1,
according to the Texas comptroller’s office.
The Republican primary caps political attacks that began before
Hutchison, who won re-election to the U.S. Senate by the largest
margins in state history, announced her challenge in August. Perry
replaced George W. Bush after he was elected president in 2000.
“This could be the nastiest primary of the decade,” said Jennifer
Duffy, who follows governors’ races for the Cook Political Report, a
Washington-based election-analysis firm.
Campaign Videos
In campaign videos on YouTube, Perry, endorsed by former Alaska
Governor Sarah Palin, portrayed Hutchison as the “Earmark Queen,”
showing her next to President Barack Obama to highlight her 17 years
in the Senate. Hutchison, endorsed by former Vice President Dick
Cheney, posted videos pointing out Perry’s ties to lobbyists who’ve
worked for industry and his office.
Perry and Hutchison have given short shrift in their campaigns to the
looming budget crisis the state will face when the Legislature
convenes to draw up the next two-year budget, said Calvin Jillson, a
political science professor at Southern Methodist University in
Dallas.
Perry led Hutchison by 21 percentage points last week, according to a
survey by the Asbury Park, New Jersey-based Rasmussen Reports LLC. The
governor garnered 48 percent versus Hutchison’s 27 percent in a survey
of 500 likely Republican voters on Feb. 23, with a margin of error of
plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. Medina received 16 percent, with
9 percent undecided. The Tea Party movement is a group of self-
described supporters of limited government that has become active in
the past year.
Poll of Democrats
Among Democrats, White got 50 percent of those polled to Shami’s 11
percent, according to an early February University of Texas/Texas
Tribune Poll that said 30 percent were undecided.
The winner has to get 50 percent of the vote to avoid an April runoff.
Perry has painted Hutchison as a Washington insider who has overseen
an increase in the federal deficit while Hutchison portrays Perry as
someone who has been in office too long.
“She will truly scrub the budget for waste, cut spending across the
board, look to consolidate agencies, boards and commissions where
duplication exists and make meaningful use of the governor’s line-item
veto authority where spending should be reined in,” said Joe Pounder,
a Hutchison campaign spokesman, in an e-mail. She would achieve this
without raising taxes, he said.
Stimulus Money
Neither Mark Miner, a Perry spokesman, nor Medina’s spokeswoman, Nelda
Skevington, returned requests for comment. Medina has said on her Web
site she would cut taxes and spending, and pledged to get rid of
property taxes and replace them with a broader sales levy.
Perry, who has joined state leaders in calling for agencies to find
ways to reduce spending by at least 5 percent, used $12 billion of
federal stimulus money to balance the current budget without using the
rainy-day fund.
White governed Houston with balanced budgets and surpluses and cut
taxes five years in a row, said Katy Bacon, a campaign spokeswoman.
White has narrowed the gap with Perry in polling for a general
election, according to the Rasmussen survey. Perry leads 47 percent to
White’s 41 percent, with 5 percent favoring another candidate and 7
percent undecided. At the beginning of February Perry led White 48
percent to 39 percent.
“This is the year of the angry voter and I don’t think it is clear
that Perry wins the governorship just because he wins the primary,”
said Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of
Virginia in Charlottesville.
To contact the reporter on this story: Darrell Preston in Dallas at
dpre...@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: March 2, 2010 11:19 EST
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
snicker. here is what it like in austin.
http://visiblevoices.org/2010/08/desperate-for-jobs-in-austin.html
notice that the stable labor rate is a influx of illegals, and the
low unemployment rate is because many are not counted:)
MONDAY, AUGUST 09, 2010
Desperate For Jobs In Austin
People are desperate for jobs in Austin. Last week I placed an ad on
craigslist for a person to help move furniture. I received more than
20 phone calls about the gig, which paid $10 an hour for a minimum of
two hours. I hired an older unemployed engineer who lived nearby. A
friend also placed an ad on craigslist for a part time office
assistant at $11 an hour. She received more than 200 responses and
resumes.
Officially the unemployment rate for the Austin metro area is about
7.4%. This does not include the self-employed or underemployed of
which there are many. People who find few or no jobs or gigs while
self-employed are not counted in the unemployment rates. For example,
Andrew Joseph Stack, who flew his plane into a building occupied by
the IRS and other federal agencies, resulting in his death and that of
an IRS employee, was self-employed. If Mr. Stack had been unemployed,
he would not have been counted among the unemployed or qualified for
unemployment benefits. Difficulties with being self-employed and
problems with the IRS among other motives appear to have driven Mr.
Stack in his suicide mission.
Shortly after Mr. Stack's suicide attack against the IRS, Austin was
listed at the top of several best of city lists. Austin has been named
to the top of best of city lists before, so this is not new, but this
year, it has accumulated even more top rankings than in the past.
Recently, Kiplinger named Austin as the best city for the next decade
for small business and music. An entrepreneur interviewed in Kiplinger
credited Austin’s rise to a large angel financing network and
billionaires who freely gave advice as well as to a workforce of
extremely bright and talented people who are willing to work for less
just to live in Austin.
In March, the business journal Portfolio.com rated Austin as the top
US city for a 20-30 year old to establish him or herself, because of
an increase in jobs and because of the presence of SXSW.
Also in March, Forbes named the Austin Round Rock metropolitan area as
one of the top cities where the recession is lessening.
TopRetirements.Com claimed Austin was one of the top five places for
active adults to retire because of its low cost of living and the
University of Texas.
Although Austin may be a great place for certain businesses to grow
and make money, it comes at a cost to many who work for them. Many
jobs lack health, vacation, maternity, paternity, and unemployment
government benefits. Also,students from the University of Texas as
well as other institutions of higher learning are used as low-cost and
even unpaid labor in the guise of internships.
White House Community Jobs Forum
In December, about two months before Stack's suicide attack, I
moderated a White House community jobs forum in Austin. The following
are the questions from the White House (edited by me for brevity) and
responses from participants in that forum.(Note: These are not my
opinions or ideas, but those of the participants in the forum.)
1. From the President's Jobs Forum on December 3, what is relevant to
your community?
President Obama condemned the banks for their poor handling of home
owners' mortgages and their unwillingness to lend money The banks are
not making dollars available. The small banks don't have money to
risk, and the big banks took TARP and are rushing to pay it back so
that the government will not hold them accountable
There are more entrepreneurs now, but it is difficult to get lines of
credit or loans for a start-up. For example, a small local company
that was doing well and had many customers and orders, but the bank
closed its line of credit and the business closed.
Also, a lot of people are unemployed and underemployed. They are
picking up part time jobs here and there and/or working survival jobs
to pay the bills.
2. What parts of your local economy are working or thriving?
The government and public sector except for the US Postal Service seem
to be thriving. The federal money sent to states including Texas has
been helping. The Food Stamps Program has had to hire more people
because of the increase in food stamp applications. The IRS and the US
Census Bureau have expanded temporary and seasonal hiring, and so have
private contracting services.
Knowledge based businesses operated by entrepreneurial bloggers also
seem to be growing. Bloggers specializing in certain knowledge areas
can receive compensation as their audiences grow.
Small businesses owned and operated by non-citizens are another growth
area. Non-citizens can legally own companies, but they can not legally
work for other companies. In at least one immigrant community in
Austin, some immigrants have started successful independent businesses
in the skilled trades such as plumbing, electrical, and construction.
Their customers often are neighbors, relatives, and friends.
3.What parts of your local economy are not working or thriving?
We need mores jobs for information technology (IT) people, because
Austin has lots of skilled IT people.
In addition, architects, especially because of the housing bust, and
retail, restaurants, software, semi-conductor industries are
struggling. It's difficult to find a job. Some government jobs have
disappeared because of lack of funding. There's too much competition
and then there's age discrimination, although it's difficult to prove.
Jobs are disappearing. The employees remaining have to do more work
for less money, and they have to do jobs that they may not have been
trained to do or are qualified to do. Employers don't care that
quality is decreasing.
Immigrant and outsourcing policies have to change. Landscapers hire
non-citizens who are illegally working here and citizens with
technical skills compete with non-citizens with visas who go to
graduate school in the US, even for entry level positions. Employers
pay for people to have work visas. but the people on work visas often
work for less money than US citizens who have the same or more
experience. Jobs also are outsourced to other countries like India.
There must be more incentives to keep jobs in the local economy. Tax
breaks to companies that outsource to other countries should be cut.
4. What are opportunities for growth are in your community?
Someone needs to look at the big picture. The education sector is
expanding. ACC, St. Ed's, and UT are growing so there should be
opportunities there.
Also, Austin has a huge health care system. With health care changes,
there is more need for health care administrators and managers.
Federal money is available for automating medical records. That could
be done in Austin. There are a lot of people locally with software
skills and knowledge. We need a training center to help people get
those jobs in computerizing medical records or climbing career ladders
in the health field.
There is growth in green energy, but no local jobs yet. Companies in
China are making solar panels for installation in the US, however,the
U.S. should be designing doors, panels, etc here for green jobs.
Face-to-face and hands on services from high skilled to low skilled
are areas of growth also. There's a need for nurses, doctors, and
hamburger cooks.
Also, there is a need for multi-culturalism, because of the U.S.
presence in the Middle East. More Persian language experts and other
experts in Middle East languages are needed.
5.What are the obstacles to job creation in your community?
Businesses need money to hire locally. There should be more government
guaranteed loans for small businesses. Also there needs to be more
education for beginning entrepreneurs. (They will not last long if
they do not know how to operate a business.) In Spain,there is a micro-
credit program. Savings banks and credit unions work with low income
beginning entrepreneurs to mentor them.
The entry into better paying jobs such as plumbers needs to be widened
instead of restricted as it currently is. Also, there should be career
ladders for growth jobs that are available. There should be incentives
to employers to hire and train people who are under qualified. Expand
the Workforce Investment Act (WIA)so people can get training for jobs
that are in growth areas. Also, there should be a fast track for
registered nurses who already have degrees. Although, at present, such
programs are seen as lower status than regular registered nurse
programs.
Although jobs are posted and companies are hiring, people need to be
trained to market themselves and their skills better. For example, a
recruiter was looking on LinkedIn for specific software skills to fill
some positions. The only people who put the specific software skills
on their profiles were some software engineers from India. The
profiles from Austin software engineers did not list specific details
about software skills and experience, yet the recruiter knew that many
probably had the knowledge and background.
Austin needs a mass transit system like Seattle's. This would attract
more companies and business here. Also, more there should be more help
for small local businesses such as improved zoning.
6.What other issues and ideas should the President consider?
The President should have the federal government give incentives and
tax credits for businesses that hire and/or retrain older workers.
Take the tax breaks for overseas jobs and use the money to retrain
people here.
Another option the President should take up, is a Civilian
Conservation Corps similar to the one during the Depression in the
1930s.
Also,he should insist on better metrics. For example, the government
has stopped reporting on how much money is being printed. Also, the
unemployment rate is inaccurate because many people file 1099 forms
and are not eligible for unemployment benefits. One must ask too why
traffic tickets are part of the GNP? How is that production?
Note: Due to problems with Blogger and Google software, I have been
unable to post comments. As soon as the problem is fixed, I will
publish comments I have received.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
last march i showed you this when you were touting your low tax
miracle.
low tax low regulation free market paradise texas finances are in a
dismal state:Sales taxes, which generate half the state’s revenue
declined 13 percent in the first quarter of the fiscal year that began
Sept. 1
sales taxes are directly tied to demand, demand is wage driven. so
lets lay off more workers, slash more taxes, and that will balance the
budget. and the results will be:)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=a.a.ZmJ0C9vU
Texas Governor Perry Faces Off Against Sen. Hutchison (Update1)
By Darrell Preston
March 2 (Bloomberg) -- Texas Governor Rick Perry, who led lawmakers in
closing a 2003 budget deficit, faces off in today’s primary election
against U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who vows to combine
agencies as the state confronts a spending gap that may swell to $10
billion.
Republican voters in the second most-populous state will choose among
Perry, 59, the longest-serving governor in Texas history and the front-
runner in polls; Hutchison, 66; and Debra Medina, 47, a Tea Party
movement activist. Democrat candidates include former Houston Mayor
Bill White, 55, who is ahead in the polls; and Houston business owner
Farouk Shami, 67.
Even with a deficit that may be the largest in seven years, Texas
bonds have yields below Nevada, which has the same AA+ rating from
Standard & Poor’s. Neither state has income tax. A Texas general
obligation bond maturing in 2020 traded last week at an average yield
of 3.1 percent, compared with 3.96 percent for a 10-year Nevada bond
that traded on Feb. 17, according to Municipal Securities Rulemaking
Board data.
“Texas bonds are pretty well respected compared to other places,” said
Colby Harlow, who oversees $125 million as president of Harlow Capital
Management LLC in Dallas. “I don’t think it matters who wins as long
as it’s a Republican,” said Harlow, who said he considers the party
most likely to maintain the state’s rainy-day reserve fund.
Tax Revenue Falls
Texas’s sales-tax revenue began to drop a year ago amid the worst
recession since the 1930s. The state may have to tap its reserve fund
for the first time in five years to bridge the first deficit since
2003, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst said in an interview last
month. S&P cited the $8 billion fund as a strength when it lifted
Texas’s rating in August by one level, to the second-highest ranking.
Accessing the reserve requires a two-thirds vote from both houses of
the Legislature.
Sales taxes, which generate half the state’s revenue, declined 13
percent in the first quarter of the fiscal year that began Sept. 1,
according to the Texas comptroller’s office.
The Republican primary caps political attacks that began before
Hutchison, who won re-election to the U.S. Senate by the largest
margins in state history, announced her challenge in August. Perry
replaced George W. Bush after he was elected president in 2000.
“This could be the nastiest primary of the decade,” said Jennifer
Duffy, who follows governors’ races for the Cook Political Report, a
Washington-based election-analysis firm.
Campaign Videos
In campaign videos on YouTube, Perry, endorsed by former Alaska
Governor Sarah Palin, portrayed Hutchison as the “Earmark Queen,”
showing her next to President Barack Obama to highlight her 17 years
in the Senate. Hutchison, endorsed by former Vice President Dick
Cheney, posted videos pointing out Perry’s ties to lobbyists who’ve
worked for industry and his office.
Perry and Hutchison have given short shrift in their campaigns to the
looming budget crisis the state will face when the Legislature
convenes to draw up the next two-year budget, said Calvin Jillson, a
political science professor at Southern Methodist University in
Dallas.
Perry led Hutchison by 21 percentage points last week, according to a
survey by the Asbury Park, New Jersey-based Rasmussen Reports LLC. The
governor garnered 48 percent versus Hutchison’s 27 percent in a survey
of 500 likely Republican voters on Feb. 23, with a margin of error of
plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. Medina received 16 percent, with
9 percent undecided. The Tea Party movement is a group of self-
described supporters of limited government that has become active in
the past year.
Poll of Democrats
Among Democrats, White got 50 percent of those polled to Shami’s 11
percent, according to an early February University of Texas/Texas
Tribune Poll that said 30 percent were undecided.
The winner has to get 50 percent of the vote to avoid an April runoff.
Perry has painted Hutchison as a Washington insider who has overseen
an increase in the federal deficit while Hutchison portrays Perry as
someone who has been in office too long.
“She will truly scrub the budget for waste, cut spending across the
board, look to consolidate agencies, boards and commissions where
duplication exists and make meaningful use of the governor’s line-item
veto authority where spending should be reined in,” said Joe Pounder,
a Hutchison campaign spokesman, in an e-mail. She would achieve this
without raising taxes, he said.
Stimulus Money
Neither Mark Miner, a Perry spokesman, nor Medina’s spokeswoman, Nelda
Skevington, returned requests for comment. Medina has said on her Web
site she would cut taxes and spending, and pledged to get rid of
property taxes and replace them with a broader sales levy.
Perry, who has joined state leaders in calling for agencies to find
ways to reduce spending by at least 5 percent, used $12 billion of
federal stimulus money to balance the current budget without using the
rainy-day fund.
White governed Houston with balanced budgets and surpluses and cut
taxes five years in a row, said Katy Bacon, a campaign spokeswoman.
White has narrowed the gap with Perry in polling for a general
election, according to the Rasmussen survey. Perry leads 47 percent to
White’s 41 percent, with 5 percent favoring another candidate and 7
percent undecided. At the beginning of February Perry led White 48
percent to 39 percent.
“This is the year of the angry voter and I don’t think it is clear
that Perry wins the governorship just because he wins the primary,”
said Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of
Virginia in Charlottesville.
To contact the reporter on this story: Darrell Preston in Dallas at
dpre...@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: March 2, 2010 11:19 EST
now its swollen to 18 billion according to your own texas speaker of
the house . you face this only 7 months later. the shortfall has
almost doubled. that is not as good sign.
http://politifi.com/news/Texas-is-facing-18-billion-budget-shortfall-...
Texas is facing $18 billion budget shortfall
Houston Chronicle / 12th May 2010
Austin — Texas House Speaker Joe Straus told legislators Tuesday it's
imperative they close a Budget gap without passing new taxes, as the
House Budget chief put the shortfall at a whopping $18 billion.
PHOTOS: Joe Straus in pictures
Without endorsing a particular option,
Straus suggested the House
Appropriations Committee consider such
ideas as unpaid state employee
Furloughs, a moratorium on new
programs and a halt to issuing bonds
due to the cost of Debt.
VIDEOS: Joe Straus in videos
“Every cost savings idea must be on the
table,”....
all the rest is just blubberings about your low taxes. so what, you
are billions in the hole because of that.
and, a financial t.v. network that touts lots of crap is not the
final authority on anything.
Nickname unavailable
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/hou_hou_inc-housing-household-income
you are number 38 out of 50.
you spend quite a bit on housing to, compared to your average income.
very low home ownership. almost at the bottom.
http://www.statemaster.com/red/graph/hea_hea_ind-health-index&b_map=1
very poor health statistics.
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/eco_per_bel_pov_lev-economy-percent-below-poverty-level
a lot of people living below the poverty level.
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/cri_lyn_tot_percap-crime-lynchings-total-per-capita
red states seem to have a lynching problem.
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/edu_bes_edu_ind-education-best-educated-index
education is not one of your stronger points.
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/edu_hig_sch_dip_or_hig_by_per-high-school-diploma-higher-percentage
in fact, really low in education, perhaps dead last.
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/hea_aid_cas_rat_all_age-aids-case-rate-all-ages
lots of unprotected sex resulting in aids. must be the poor
education:)
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/hea_ann_rep_hiv_cas_all_age-reported-hiv-cases-all-ages
a lot of HIV cases. education thingy again.
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/hea_chi_dea_rat-health-child-death-rate
pretty high up there on child deaths.
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/hea_obe_rat-health-obesity-rate
not to healthy. this is a sign of low wages.
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/hea_tee_bir_rat_per_100-birth-rate-per-1-000
this is just a amazing statistic. a sign of poor education, low
wages, and fundamentalism.
ray
<a55b207f-4bd8-4457...@s4g2000yql.googlegroups.com>,
Nickname unavailable <Vid...@tcq.net> wrote:
http://www.move.com/trends/hot-properties-homes-in-the-fastest-growing-st
ates/
Silence Do`Good
> In article
> <e1cfa249-3106-4905...@o2g2000vbh.googlegroups.com>,
> Ron Peterson <r...@shell.core.com> wrote:
>
>> On Nov 17, 10:50 am, No Surren...@never.net wrote:
>>
>>> HEAD: Low-tax states will gain seats, high-tax states will lose them
>>> By: Barbara Hollingsworth
>>
>> Sure, I want to move to a low-tax state, but often those states have
>> other problems making them undesirable.
Then pay the tax and suck it up.
Given all the problems, I think high tax is the most egregious problem
of them all.
Nickname unavailable
>
> > that is a lie. texas is in a economic fee fall, with workers leaving
> > in desperation looking for work anywhere.
>
> ates/
>
> --
> Barock Insane Obama: The greatest joke America ever played on itself.
your link was dead.
basically what is fueling the red states population growth, is the
ongoing nafta induced collapse of free market mexico. millions are
fleeing the poverty and drug wars. the sun belt is collapsing.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christof-putzel/arizonas-overflowing-morg_b_784429.html
Christof Putzel
Correspondent, Current TV’s “Vanguard”
Posted: November 16, 2010 10:09 PM
Arizona's Overflowing Morgues Full of Unidentified Migrants
Christof Putzel is a Vanguard correspondent. As part of his
investigation into the immigration debate, he crossed the border from
Mexico into the U.S. on foot.
The Pima County Morgue in Tucson, Arizona, is so overwhelmed with the
record number of bodies being found in the desert this year that it
has taken to storing many of them in mobile units, refrigerated trucks
most often used in response to mass disasters such as Hurricane
Katrina or 9/11.
As part of my investigation for Current TV's Vanguard about
immigration from Mexico into the United States, I spoke to Dr. Bruce
Anderson, the morgue's forensic anthropologist. "This is a mass
disaster -- it's just played out slowly," he told me.
Anderson showed me the dessicated remains of one body, which Anderson
estimated had only been dead for a month. The elements in the desert
are so harsh that the bodies decompose at a rapid pace, making them
even more difficult to identify. While the investigators sift through
the things the dead carried for clues -- Mexican voter registration
cards, telephone numbers scrawled on scraps of paper, jewelry,
rosaries, family photographs -- the identities of most of these
suspected illegal immigrants will remain a mystery forever.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
the south:of the 25 metropolitan areas with the lowest per capita
income in 1990, 23 were in the Sun Belt, The boom in parts of the Sun
Belt was a "giant Ponzi scheme" a growth machine that banked on
wishful thinking, on the hope that an unending stream of new arrivals
would forever inject their money into construction and real estate
Has twilight come to the Sun Belt?
By TODD LEWAN, AP National Writer – 40 mins ago
ORLANDO, Fla. – We first heard the term decades ago: The "Sun Belt"
was just starting a run of phenomenal growth — and no wonder. It
conjured a sunny state of mind as well as a balmy place on the map.
Everybody, it seemed, wanted a spot in the sun.
Industries such as aerospace, defense and oil set up shop across
America's southernmost tier, capitalizing on the low involvement of
labor unions and the proximity of military bases that paid handsomely,
and reliably, for their products and services.
Later, San Jose, Calif., and Austin, Texas, developed into high-tech
nerve centers; Houston grew into a hub for the oil industry; Nashville
became a mecca for music recording and production; Charlotte, N.C.,
transformed itself into a center for low-cost banking and finance; and
then there were the new Dixie Detroits, places like Canton, Miss.,
Georgetown, Ky., and Spartanburg, S.C., that began rolling out Titans,
Camrys and BMWs.
Meanwhile, other warm-weather havens offered their own variants of the
Sun Belt dream — as Fountains of Youth for 60-and-up duffers, as Magic
Kingdoms for fun-seekers, as Cape Canaverals for middle-aged
northerners looking to launch their second acts.
Air conditioning, bug spray and drainage canals that transformed
marshes into golf-course subdivisions — these innovations, plus the
availability of flat, low-taxed land attracted migrants from Brooklyn
and Cleveland, Havana and Mexico City to locales once dismissed as too
hot, too swampy, too dry, too backwater-ish.
"We Give Years to Your Life and Life to Your Years!" That was the sort
of slogan you'd hear from developers pitching the promise that a new
start in the Sun Belt might even, in the best of circumstances, extend
one's time on Earth.
In this way, for a generation or more, the Sun Belt thrived like no
other region in America — a growth so steady it felt as though the
boom would never end. But now it has, replaced by a bust that has left
some swaths of the region suffering as severely as anywhere in the
current recession.
What brought the dark clouds to the Sun Belt, and are they here to
stay?
Interviews with economists and demographers across the region, and
data from The Associated Press Economic Stress Index, a month-by-month
analysis of foreclosure, bankruptcy and unemployment rates in more
than 3,000 U.S. counties, suggest that the answers are not all
encouraging.
___
Some cities — Las Vegas, Phoenix, Fort Myers are good examples —
hitched their floats to housing bubbles and got caught up in
development that depended largely on, well, development itself, rather
than sustainable, scalable, productive industry, economic analysts
say.
It's in these places where the economic meltdown "will likely find its
fullest bloom," Richard Florida, the urbanist and author, wrote
recently in an Atlantic Monthly article titled "How the Crash Will
Reshape America."
AP Stress Index figures, which calculate the economic impact of the
recession on a scale of 1 to 100, illustrate how the downturn has
played out in some of these communities:
_In Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, the Stress Index more than
doubled from 5.12 at the beginning of the recession in December 2007
to 12.67 in March 2009, worsened by a foreclosure rate that nearly
tripled.
_Mounting foreclosures in Las Vegas' Clark County drove up its Stress
Index score from 10.5 at the start of the recession to 19.3 in March
2009.
_In Lee County, home to Fort Myers, unemployment has doubled and
foreclosures have soared 75 percent since the recession began, lifting
its Stress Index from 10.5 to 19.98.
The boom in parts of the Sun Belt was, Florida wrote in the Atlantic,
a "giant Ponzi scheme" — a growth machine that banked on wishful
thinking, on the hope that an unending stream of new arrivals would
forever inject their money into construction and real estate.
But as often is the case with such schemes, there comes a day when the
engine sputters, gasps, and conks out. A day when the faithful stop
turning up.
In the Sun Belt's newer, shallow-rooted communities, the roadkill is
most evident: Where once there were "boomburbs," there now stand
"ghostdivisions." Where property-flipping was once almost a middle-
class sport, joblessness and "For Sale by Owner" signs reign.
The fallout is traceable in other ways, too. Nevada — the only state
with a lower proportion of native residents than Florida — has seen
net migration plunge 61 percent in two years; Arizona, 55 percent.
Were it not for immigrants, many of them from Latin America, and for
fertility, the Sunshine State would actually have lost population last
year — an "astounding development in the Florida experience," says
Bill Frey, a senior fellow and demographer at the Brookings
Institution in Washington, D.C.
He said the end of steady movement of people into the Sun Belt is part
of a broader trend of curtailed migration during this downturn. "The
merry-go-round has stopped, in terms of people moving from place to
place."
Does this mean we've witnessed the Rise and Fall of the Sun Belt? Will
those who swept into these Miracle-Gro states get swept out just as
quickly, leaving behind a sprawl of hollow houses, cul-de-sac
moonscapes and mosquito-infested pools — the stucco ghettos of the
21st century?
Or will the latest downturn merely force the Sun Belt to reinvent
itself again?
___
The housing bubble in many places revealed an obsolescent model of
economic life, in which cheap real estate encouraged low-density
sprawl and created a work force "stuck in place, anchored by houses
that cannot be profitably sold," Florida wrote in his March article.
These places, he says, include older, factory towns across the
northern Rust Belt but also countless communities in the Sun Belt
whose prosperity was built on "fictitious wealth."
What to do? Scrap policies that encourage homebuying, he suggests, and
give incentives to more mobile renters who can go where the jobs are.
In the digital age, he says, industries will likely cluster in "mega-
regions" of multiple cities and their surrounding suburban rings
(e.g., the Boston-New York-Washington corridor). These areas will
surge, lifted by the brainpower of educated professionals and creative
thinkers that turn out "products and services faster than talented
people in other places can."
In short: Those that can draw talented, young people with high-
quality, higher education will reap the spoils.
There is some evidence to suggest an imbalance in American educational
achievement across regions. According to research by two Harvard
economists, Edward Glaeser and Christopher Berry, educational
attainment is no longer as evenly spread across America as it was in
the '70s.
Places such as San Francisco, Boston and Seattle now turn out two to
three times the college graduates of, say, Akron or Buffalo. When
examining postgraduate achievement, the researchers found even greater
disparities.
If locales that boast premium universities will be able to more
quickly pick themselves off the mat, a question arises. In the Sun
Belt's "sand cities," their expansion now halted, where will the tax
money come from to pay for college upgrades?
Parts of Arizona, Nevada and the Los Angeles exurb of Riverside
overbuilt and overstretched, said Anthony Sanders, a professor of
finance and economics at Arizona State University.
Like Looney Toons characters who, suspended in mid-air, look down to
behold they've run off a cliff, officials are scrambling to reverse
course — either by scrapping government services they'd promised or,
at the very least, by hiking taxes to pay for services created in
expectation of bigger suburbs, exurbs.
Phoenix is in this fix. Shocked by a 33 percent plunge in home values
between October 2007 and October 2008 alone, the city is running a
$200 million budget deficit, a shortfall that's only expected to grow.
(It has petitioned the federal government for funds.)
California has an even wider hole in its battered canoe.
That state "went on a spending spree that was incredible," said
Sanders. Now, at a time when many resident retirees are in no mood, or
shape, for tax increases, "they're having to raise taxes or cut back
services, both of which are making moving to California a lot less
desirable than it has been in previous decades."
Other Sun Belt states are making similar "mistakes," Sanders said,
adding: "Unless we lower the tax burden, making it simpler for
businesses to do more operations, and freeing up the ability to
attract workers, the economy here is not going to come back."
The challenges don't end there.
Even before the Crash of '08, the Sun Belt was being buffeted by
outmigration of factory jobs abroad. In the Carolinas, for example,
industries that linked up the economy, society and culture for more
than a century — furniture making, tobacco and textiles — had been
gutted by a decade of decline.
And although the overall expansion of the Sun Belt's economy has been
dramatic, the distribution of the region's prosperity has been uneven;
of the 25 metropolitan areas with the lowest per capita income in
1990, 23 were in the Sun Belt.
That has to change, said Warren Brown, a demographer at the University
of Georgia, although he noted that the Sun Belt's unbridled growth in
the '80s and '90s was "unsustainable, bound to cool off," and not just
because of bursting housing or migration bubbles.
The limits of natural resources were poised to put the brakes on
development in the Land of Sunny Dreams anyway, he said. Two biggies:
oil and water.
"Long before we run out of land, we'll be running out of water," he
said. "Water is a major issue right now."
___
Doomsaying pundits have played the Sun Belt dirge before.
In 1981, for example, Time magazine declared Florida, a "Paradise
Lost." The state then embarked on an epic boom, in which the Miami-
Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach corridor ballooned into the seventh-
largest metro area in America.
Granted, today's news from the Sunshine State is hardly cheery: It
ranks near the top in foreclosures and near the bottom in high-school
graduation rates. There's a water crisis, an insurance crisis, a
budget crisis.
So why do some experts caution that talk of Florida's demise — and the
Sun Belt's — is exaggerated?
Among other things, Frey, the Brookings demographer, notes that
outmigration from metro Miami actually fell last year, and in years to
come "we're going to have large numbers of immigrants in the United
States who are going to help us in all kinds of ways," he says.
Stan Smith, a professor of economics and director of the Bureau of
Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida, says
tourism, the "momentum" of decades of population growth, and already
extensive networks of personal connections will again draw more
migrants to Florida.
Frozen credit won't last, he says. Real estate price declines — as
much as 70 percent in some Sun Belt counties — will encourage buyers.
And with home heating costs in the "Frost Belt" only expected to rise,
Smith says, the attraction of warm weather to retiring Baby Boomers
can't be overestimated.
Florida is one of only nine states without an income tax. Couple that
with the fact that its taxes on corporations and financial
transactions have many exemptions, he says, and "the effects of the
positive factors will continue to outweigh the negative."
Recovery will take time, though, and few economists see any
significant growth in the Sun Belt before 2010. Steve Malanga, a
senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute in New York City, agrees that
states that have piled up surplus housing "are not going to solve it
in this budget cycle or the next budget cycle. It's going to be with
them for five, six, seven years, no doubt about it."
And yet, to say all areas across the Sun Belt are in for long-term
decline is simplistic, he says. Scanning the most recent employment
maps put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals "a 'belt' in
the middle of the country — Texas is part of it — that is doing quite
well." (The AP Stress Map backs up that finding, revealing a swath of
comparatively unscathed counties starting in North Dakota, stretching
through South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas and ending in Oklahoma and
Texas.)
Out of the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties, the majority were in
Texas (19), Georgia (14), North Carolina (11) or Utah (nine),
according to U.S. Census figures last year. Raleigh-Cary, N.C., and
Austin-Round Rock, Texas, were the nation's fastest-growing metro
areas, registering growth rates of 4.3 percent and 3.8 percent,
respectively. Both high-tech centers, the two metros are also sites of
major college campuses that helped cushion them.
Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston registered the biggest numerical gains,
the census figures show. Phoenix and Atlanta ranked third and fourth
in growth, respectively, followed by Los Angeles, despite the housing
slump.
"Obviously, the best situation is a state that hasn't had a
residential meltdown, still has a low-cost advantage, and has a
weather advantage," Malanga says. High-tax states, such as California,
are going to take longer to rebound.
And yet, Sun Belt states will have to offer more than tax incentives
to reel in companies in the new, global economy, says Keith Schwer,
executive director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at
the University of Nevada.
Quality health care, quality recreation, quality education — companies
and individuals consider the caliber of amenities before relocating.
Cosmetic fixes don't help, he says. "You can't hide your warts."
Does all of this mean the Sun Belt will have to reinvent itself to
grow again?
Rethink may be a better term.
As an example, Caron St. John, director of the Spiro Institute for
Entrepreneurship at Clemson University in South Carolina, says Sun
Belt states now rationing funds ought to consider returning to "First
Principles" — that is, channeling what little money they have toward
elementary and high schools rather than higher education.
"Elementary and high school children — we can't scar their lives
because of a budget crisis. That has to be the first priority."
The question is whether the Sun Belt will show the rest of the nation
how to retool schools, save water and energy, and better plan its
suburbs and exurbs in an era of less.
"By necessity, we're already being forced to address these issues,"
says Schwer, of the University of Nevada. "This crisis is an
opportunity, more than anything else, to reset things, to put some
balance back into our lives."
Werner
> per capita taxation actually maps to population density. That is because
> larger masses of people DEMAND more government provided infrastructure.
>
> --
Well, if they are moving out they clearly don't want to pay for the
services they demand.
Werner
People tend to move to places with better welfare benefits, for
example. It makes sense to exploit those states.
http://www.EndIt.indo/how.html
Nickname unavailable
Nickname unavailable
then they are not fleeing high income, unionized, high tax places
then. because welfare is not so good in texas:)