California Taxing itself out of existence?

I spent a great deal of time yesterday seeing what San Joaquin County could do to minimize the impact of the NUMMI closure next March. There are a number of alternate fuel auto manufacturers that have purchased abandoned auto plants in other states and often kept many of the existing workers.

You would think that our economic development experts at the state level would be mobilized and attempt to find some way to keeps autos coming out of the last major plant in Northern California. Well, the silence from the state right now is deafening! I'm not going to rant yet, because it may be that they are working behind the scenes--but publicly there is absolutely nothing the state is doing, which is tragic.

Click here to read a recent article from the Autumn Edition of "City". It basically contrasts the California and Texas state governments. It points out that Texans pay far less to their state government, yet nowadays receive equivalent or better services than their counterparts in California.

How? In Texas, most tax dollars go towards providing services, not towards lining the pockets of state workers! The article provides a link to another dreary article which provides a summary of how the state of New York destroyed its economy a generation ago following the same model California is now operating from...i.e. lots of taxes to run off businesses and little return from those taxes to help the state grow.

I would highly recommend the read, it may be our future.