Texas Insider Report: DALLAS Texas In Texas the payroll count is back to prerecession levels. California is nearly 1.5 million jobs in the hole. Why such a difference? Chalk it up to taxes regulation and attitude says Investors Business Daily (IBD). Californias business climate is notoriously bad.
- CEOs polled by the magazine Chief Executive have ranked it dead last for the past five years with Texas naturally ranked first.
- To anyone seeking to start an enterprise and hire workers moving to Texas is a lot less trouble than trying to change Californias high taxes overregulation and not-so-subtle bias against the profit motive.
The difference in tax systems reflects a difference in attitudes toward business and the wealth that business generates.
- Capital gains are tax-free in Texas; in California they are taxed up to 10.55 percent.
- To an entrepreneur choosing where to set up shop the message is clear: Texas wants to reward success; California wants to tax it.
- California also has developed a web of regulations that raises labor costs spurs litigation and ties up building projects indefinitely.
Just how pervasive is the states antibusiness attitude? Consider a recent story about how some governments in the San Francisco Bay Area are gouging the solar power business says IBD.
If California officialdom stands for anything it stands for renewable energy against Big Oil and for green jobs. Yet an informal survey by the
Sierra Club found that some cities were charging sky-high fees for solar installations on schools churches retail stores and other buildings.
That just about says it all -- were all for solar but we cant have people making money off it now can we?
As long as California officials can say something like that with a straight face the state faces a very long slog back to prosperity says IBD.
Source: A Trenchant Tale of Two States Investors Business Daily October 14 2010.
