Let’s compare California:
California’s unemployment rate hit 6.2% in March, the highest level in almost four years, spurred by a continuing downturn in construction and financial activities.
…
Next month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers must grapple with plunging tax revenue and a projected $8-billion-plus budget deficit as they prepare the state’s spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1.Levy noted that California’s unemployment rate is the third-highest in the country, trailing Michigan with 7.2% and Alaska with 6.7%. California is doing worse than Pennsylvania and Ohio, Levy said, two Rust Belt states that have figured prominently in the presidential primary elections because of their manufacturing job losses.
with Texas:
The Lone Star State passed New York as home to the most big companies in the latest list compiled by Fortune magazine.
Texas now boasts 58 headquarters, three more than New York, the previous No. 1, and California, with 52.
Business experts say it’s a matter of simple economics – Texas attracts companies with its low taxes, affordable land and large labor force.
…
The unemployment rate in Texas rose in March to 4.3 percent, but it remained lower than the national average of 5.1 percent. The number of jobs in Texas has grown 2.1 percent since March 2007, compared to a nationwide increase of just 0.4 percent.
I know that Colorado, another popular destination for California companies and workers, also has an unemployment rate of only 4.4% and an annual job growth rate of about 2%. Colorado, like Texas, has a business-friendly environment, and that seems to show in the employment numbers.
In contrast, California continues to punish corporations and wage earners, relying on its existing (and incredible) industrial base, fantastic university system, and marvelous climate to keep them from leaving. But it looks like they may have finally killed the golden geese, or at least pissed them off mightily.
April 22, 2008 at 10:23 am
This has been going on for quite a while.
We lived in Mesa, AZ for a year in the early nineties. I remember there were quite a few transplanted Californians. Most of the folks I knew weren’t native Arizonians, most came from somewhere else…mostly CA.
April 22, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Also, isn’t Nevada a haven for displaced California companies?
April 22, 2008 at 1:55 pm
No state income tax here either.
April 22, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Mr. Lipstick was so happy to leave California and the taxes.
But I (secretly) miss living at the beach.
April 22, 2008 at 5:14 pm
When I lived in Colorado, it seemed like all the new people moved from either California or Texas.
We’re getting a lot of Californians here in Nevada, too, and that’s part of what fed our recent housing boom.
April 22, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Gee, that’s weird. It’s almost like taxing and regulating policies acted as … I dunno … INCENTIVES or something, and actually affected behavior. How’s that possible?
April 22, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Why would anyone with a business stay here in CA? The Democrat controlled legislature does EVERYTHING it can to drive business OUT, and invite illegal alien gangs and criminals IN.
All they know here is tax, tax, tax. And what do we get for it? Bad roads, illegal aliens, bad traffic, bad schools, overwhelmed hospitals. The only ones doing a thriving business here are the prisons.
April 22, 2008 at 9:45 pm
CA can’t possibly have unemployment that high.
If they did, they wouldn’t import millions of illegal aliens. Would they??
April 23, 2008 at 6:16 am
Don’t forget California unions. In addition to Eurostyle contracts that strap local and state governments and drive higher taxes on businesses, they keep wages low by encouraging, through political action, the normalization of illegal alien workers. This means, Harry, that the labor market is flooded.