Texas’s low-cost, liberty-loving atmosphere has become an attractive alternative to California’s oppressive public sector and dysfunctional policy environment. No amount of heart-melting vistas, celebrity sightings, or traipses through wine country can make up for what almost appears a strategic attempt by one of the nation’s largest states to drive businesses and productive people away....
If we look at Harris County, Texas, where Houston is located, we can practically hear a giant sucking sound as the state’s largest city pulls people southward from the northeast, the Midwest, and elsewhere. Most of the outmigration is regional, with some identifiable patterns to the upper northwest. You get a similar picture when you look at the migration patterns to Dallas and Austin.
Now let’s look at California. Aside from the appeal of Los Angeles to people living in the high-cost northeast (you might as well have good beaches and sunny weather if you’re paying high taxes for bad services), it appears the city of angels is losing its heavenly radiance in a massive way. San Diego also looks very red. San Francisco (not included here) has a surprisingly black hue to it in defiance of that beautiful city’s high cost of living, but it has a noticeably lower volume than the other great California cities.
People vote with their feet. And they clearly are voting for states with low taxes that are friendly to businesses.
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