Interesting report confirms what we all know: Texas Rocks! (Waco: home, public schools)

[tyanger]

O’Neil Center Report: How Americans Vote with Their Feet

O'Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom @ SMU Cox

A few quotes that stood out:

From 2004 to 2008, Texas had net in-migration from everywhere except Colorado, Wyoming and Washington, D.C. The state losing the most population to Texas was California -- a four-year total of nearly 148,000 people. Living all in one place, these former Californians would form Texas' 18th largest city, a burg bigger than Waco or McAllen

From 2004 to 2008, California still added newcomers from abroad, but in nevertheless led all states by losing about 700,000 residents -- enough to nearly empty San Francisco.

The regression analysis identified the half-dozen most important influences on the decision to move from one state to another. [Personal Income Taxes, Unions, Government Spending Growth, Home Prices, Education, Climate]

No state ranks highly on all six key drivers for net migration -- but population shifts result from all of them taken together. California's climate, for example, still entices, but good weather can't make up for high taxes, big unions, excess spending, expensive housing and poorly performing schools. Even with mediocre public schools, Texas leads among the gainers because of a combination of low taxes, right-to-work laws, smaller government and affordable housing.

(I couldn't link directly to the pdf file for some reason - you'll have to click through from the main page to see it. The report from 2009 is good too if you have time to read it - title: "The Ascension of DFW - How To Keep A Good Thing Going")