Texas Governor Rick Perry was on the Kudlow show on CNBC last night. He said that "somewhere between 70% to 80% of all jobs created last year in America were created in Texas." Reasons: Texas has no personal income tax, has no corporate income tax, and, according to Perry, recently enacted the most sweeping tort reform in America. Trial attorneys are in check in Texas -- Perry says "we export trial attorneys along with manufactured goods." He did express disappointment in persistently high property tax rates, and said that the fight to lower them continues.Not too long ago I read a post in which the writer mentioned attending a speech of Perry's in Texas. He reported Perry saying that in Texas they recognize that companies create and maintain jobs, and that when companies prosper, Texans prosper. As such, Perry said that when a business anywhere in the US thinks about opening a new plant or relocating its business, Texans want that business to think of Texas first. They want Texas to have the best climate for business in the US.
Other states, usually those solidly controlled by Democrats, follow a different path. Illinois, my home state, has an incalculably high "corruption" tax, ranks 48th among the states in economic performance according to the ALEC-Laffer Analysis (link), and ranks 47th in non-farm employment growth 1996-2006. So what does new Democrat Gov. Quinn want to do? He wants to raise taxes, and raise them dramatically (link). It will be hard for Illinois to get to 50th place, however, as long as states like Michigan and New York are in the Union, or at least as long as they are controlled by Democrats.
Texans, alert people that they are, are now sending a shot across the bow of the socialist federal ship of state run by Obama and his band of spend and tax and spend Democrats (link) by reaffirming their 10th Amendment rights in our federal system. They have worked hard for their prosperity and they don't want Obama and the Democrats to damage it any more than they already have. In the ALEC-Laffer State Performance Index, Texas is first, by design, among the 50 states.
John M Greco
