Tx Governor trying to steal Washington jobs (Seattle: 2013, transfer)

[CarlB328]

As a Washingtonian living in Texas I was outraged to read this this morning that Rich Perry is sending letter to companies in Wa because of the income tax initiative to try to lure them to Texas before the election's even over.

I hate this state and the thought of any company leaving Washington to strengthen this state of cavemen really infuriates me. What do you guys think?

Politics Northwest | Texas governor uses I-1098 to court Washington business | Seattle Times Newspaper

[Xanathos]

Fact: Texas has no state income tax

Fact: Austin is a lot like Seattle in many ways (strong tech sector, centrist-progressive attitudes, top-notch university system in the city, music, activities, etc.)

Fact: The proposed income tax is an open act of class-warfare on the successful

Fact: If it passes, successful people will leave Washington

Fact: You can't poke a successful person in the eye with a stick and yell "Hi-Yah! Take THAT, evil-doer! Transfer your wealth to me!" and just blindly expect the entity being poked to take it. You can't suddenly go "hey, wait! Where are you going? You're supposed to stay and transfer your wealth to me!"

Fact: Other states look at Seattle and think "man, they've got a lot of top-notch businesses and amazingly skilled talent up there". You can't suddenly express "outrage" at other states who see a potential opportunity to poach away some top-level, FDA Prime, grad-a level talent to their states. Businesses look at this state and go "hey, this is a great place to set up shop, it's not hostile to growth or business. There's a lot of great talent up here, and the area is so appealing that it will be easy to attract even more talent". If the income tax passes, that all changes. Perry's a slimeball all-in-all, but in this instance, he's simply being very shrewd. If that income tax passes, Texas will suddenly become a very attractive state to highly skilled talent, because Texas doesn't declare open war on people who are successful like some in Washington do. It's just good business to seize upon an opportunity. And if the income tax passes, Perry won't be the only one actively attempting to lure away great companies that set up shop here because of a positive environment years ago, only to now find that it's becoming hostile.

Fact: The fact that you called the state that has a very progressive Seattle-Lite type of city in Austin, the 4th largest city in the country in Houston, and a city with a strong economy like Dallas a "state full of cavemen" makes me wonder how it is such an extreeeeeeeme left winger ever found his way down there in the 1st place. Portland is the place for you.

[CarlB328]

Fact: The proposed income tax is an open act of class-warfare on the successful

The only class warfare is businesses and banks ripping us off every day, and congress giving them special rights while taking ours away.

Taxes are not class warfare- at least not at a reasonable rate like this.

[CarawayDJ]

Originally Posted by CarlB328

As a Washingtonian living in Texas I was outraged to read this this morning that Rich Perry is sending letter to companies in Wa because of the income tax initiative to try to lure them to Texas before the election's even over.

I hate this state and the thought of any company leaving Washington to strengthen this state of cavemen really infuriates me. What do you guys think?

Politics Northwest | Texas governor uses I-1098 to court Washington business | Seattle Times Newspaper

Huh? I lived in TX for 6 years and have made frequent business trips there since then. TX is an extremely well run state.

States that let businesses walk away have only themselves to blame. I can't speak for the WA government yet, but I can certainly tell you that I wish the TX state government would come run CA for a few years. They've proven that you can do a lot for your citizens without going broke and without taxing people to death. That's a challenge I often pose to people here in CA. Tell me what CA provides for you that you wouldn't get living in TX? What does WA do? Is there anything?

BTW, please elaborate on why you think TX is full of cavemen? I suspect your answer will be interesting...

[CarawayDJ]

Originally Posted by CarlB328

The only class warfare is businesses and banks ripping us off every day, and congress giving them special rights while taking ours away.

Taxes are not class warfare- at least not at a reasonable rate like this.

What's reasonable is highly subjective. I think it also comes down to the "what do I get for my money" factor. I hate paying higher taxes when the reason for those taxes has more to do with wasteful spending, and less to do with truly good programs and benefits. Taxes are often class warfare. It's very popular to slam those evil rich guys. I hear politicians slam them often. Heck, I was even raised that way. Thus, when a large percentage of your voter base happens to be poorer people, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that some politicians will turn taxes into class warfare. Every time they say they're going to tax the wealthy, they can imagine a few more votes coming their way.

As for those evil banks, I'm not going to label them as angels. I will label them as your typical publicly traded company. Publicly traded companies often do whatever they can to maximize their profits. They owe that to their shareholders. Which by the way, if you have a 401K you too are also likely a shareholder and enjoying the profits from their "evil" practices. But really, you can look at most any major industry and cite numerous ways they try to separate us from our money using means less than honorable. Maybe they think they can copy the government?

[Wolf14016]

It's just smoke. The cost of moving a business - especially a larger one - halfway across the country would probably cost more then a business may lose on I-1098.

And last time I checked, I-1098 was pretty far behind in the polls.

Plus, who in their right mind would want to live in Texas? I was stationed there and it was miserable.

[CarlB328]

They've proven that you can do a lot for your citizens without going broke and without taxing people to death

I wasn't talking about the government, I was talking about the people, but the government isn't that great. There are a lot of badly run things here in San Antonio, like road construction, letting businesses get away with murder, no emissions testing, bad education, little effort to stop teen pregnancy and unsustainable population growth and development.

There are a lot of cavemen here though- people in San Antonio are on average poorly educated and don't seem to know anything about the rest of the world, science, other cultures (besides Mexican) and anything about corporate corruption, and how they're being shafted with very substandard things in a lot of areas like museums, parks, infrastructure, pay, and monopolies all over the place that offer limited selections of things compared to the rest of America.

It takes them one to two years to redo a stretch of road here that would be done in a few weeks in washington, for example, and cable was a monopoly for years that's massively overpriced.

[Inkpoe]

Its normal though. Why would anyone be surprised by this?

When Oregon passed their recently revised tax law, both WA and Idaho were talking about "snatching" up those OR companies. You may dislike TX, but what's to dislike about a state who cares for its well-being?

[Ultrarunner]

As they say... it's just business.

It is naive to imagine the imposition of increased taxes can occur without consequences... it is part of living in a "Free" society.

Just look at the businesses from other States that have relocated to Texas... California lost the Toyota NUUMI plant and 5000 direct jobs and perhaps as many as 10,000 ancillary jobs when production moved to Texas and Canada.

It can happen and it does happen.

Even more of a problem will be the disincentive for business to set-up shop in the WA... Microsoft made the decision to be headquartered here based on the circumstances of the time... well times change and business either changes or fails.

It's not stealing unless you own it.

[Xanathos]

Originally Posted by CarawayDJ

Huh? I lived in TX for 6 years and have made frequent business trips there since then. TX is an extremely well run state.

States that let businesses walk away have only themselves to blame. I can't speak for the WA government yet, but I can certainly tell you that I wish the TX state government would come run CA for a few years. They've proven that you can do a lot for your citizens without going broke and without taxing people to death. That's a challenge I often pose to people here in CA. Tell me what CA provides for you that you wouldn't get living in TX? What does WA do? Is there anything?

BTW, please elaborate on why you think TX is full of cavemen? I suspect your answer will be interesting...

I can actually answer this. The things California provides that Texas doesn't:

-A HUGE pension for government workers. Nothing quite like being guaranteed 80% of your salary and health benefits for life after working for a mere 20 years. The government workers' union has single-handedly bankrupted the state.

-Cleaner air. Of course, this comes at the cost of ridiculously stringent air quality standards which has resulted in a lot of companies fleeing California to states like Texas.

-Better health care for illegal immigrants and welfare queens

-Special tax incentives for "going green". Of course, California has no idea how to actually cover the expenses of this, but that doesn't stop them, anyways.

-Special protections for those who just feel that looking out for themselves or being able to make their own decisions is just too much work or too dangerous. California politicians are always coming to the rescue with things like bans on toys in Happy Meals, bans on bottled water and soda drinks, ludicrous restrictions on tobacco sales, and taxing anything the government deems unseemly in an effort to control social behavior. California goes out of its way to protect you from yourself.

-The ability to wake up every morning and genuinely have no clue what that whacky government is going to come up with next.