California vs. Texas: The Verdict Is In

From Powerline: comparing Texas to California we find that people are leaving California while Texas is gaining residents. Why? Texas has lower taxes and spends its tax revenue more efficiently for the state's residents rather than state employees.

Excerpt.

But those higher taxes in California must be going somewhere. Why aren't they benefiting those many thousands of citizens who are leaving the state for greener pastures?

In what respects, then, does California "excel"? California's state and local government employees were the best compensated in America, according to the Census Bureau data for 2006. And the latest posting on the website of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility shows 9,223 former civil servants and educators receiving pensions worth more than $100,000 a year from California's public retirement funds. The "dues" paid by taxpayers in order to belong to Club California purchase benefits that, increasingly, are enjoyed by the staff instead of the members.

No doubt similar studies in other high tax states, like my home state of Minnesota, would show the same thing: taxpayers aren't getting anything in particular for their money, likely less than citizens in other states, but public employees are doing very well indeed. This explains why public employees' unions have become the Democratic Party's most loyal supporters, while those who are not on the public employee gravy train increasingly are packing up their belongings and moving to lower-tax states like Texas.

The debate, really, is over. High-tax states don't deliver a better lifestyle--not for taxpayers, anyway. One of these days, voters will figure out that the same thing holds true at the national level. Higher taxes may be OK if you're a public employee; otherwise, they're a dead loss.