Texas Attracted California Techies. Now It’s Losing Thousands of Them.
Texas Attracted California Techies. Now It’s Losing Thousands of Them.
The “Texas Miracle” loses some of its magic as Oracle announces it’s moving its new HQ out of Austin and Tesla lays off nearly 2,700 workers.
The “Texas Miracle” loses some of its magic as Oracle announces it’s moving its new HQ out of Austin and Tesla lays off nearly 2,700 workers.
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some of the Californians who moved here during the pandemic realized they had traded Edenic weather for 110-degree summers and no income tax, and they decided that the income tax wasn’t that bad
People discovering what the state provide isn't free.
Also, just because Texas doesn’t have income tax doesn’t mean you don’t pay taxes. Your taxes come from other places, like property tax, and they don’t provide you with a great living experience like they do in California.
The article even addresses this. Texas Monthly in general is a good gauge of the "44%" of Texas that isn't crazy, or at least is crazy in the silly fun way.
Meanwhile, Texas is not a low-tax, low-service state, as is commonly held. It’s a high-tax, low-service state: we may have no income tax, but at least one study found that we have one of the ten highest total tax burdens in the nation, with property taxes making up most of the gap. The quality of state services, however, has not improved commensurate with the growth of state budgets.
Toll the shit out of anyone trying to go highway speeds
I’m in CA and while state taxes exist, they are a really small part of the taxes I pay. It’s such a small amount, i can’t imagine anyone moving to motherfucking Texass to escape them. Unless they already want to go.
It’s the CEOs that want to go. They try to drag everyone else with them. Then when half the talent doesn’t go, and they can’t find enough talent there, they realize why they were in California in the first place.
Isn't Texas built on the same letters as taxes? They need money to run the state or print it (what is a bad idea anywhere).
Texas promotes itself with the no income taxes, but what the state provide afterward is another story. People believe in the argument and discover the reality. Your neighbor backyard isn't greener. If you cut a tax, you either take the money somewhere else or cut your expense. People discover that paying taxes provides some benefits...
Libertarians discovering reality is such a great genre.
Also, property tax is really high in Texas and unlike California, you aren’t shielded from spikes in property value greatly increasing your property tax burden.
I believe it’s to a degree that the average tax burden is actually higher in Texas than California.
But are they all moving back to California?
Last I heard was most are going to Nashville which has absolutely terrible traffic and infrastructure, soaring land costs and pushing 100 degrees, arming teachers, arresting folks for DUI even if you've not had a drink. Weather has absolutely nothing to do with any of the decisions because the CEOs don't go to the office. It's all about the latest city tax break.
It's weird that people are talking this up like anything Texas has done would cause this. The people in charge don't give a shit about you, they don't give a shit about you living in 110 degrees weather, and they certainly don't give a shit if you die because of a pregnancy complication.
Also, isn't California a bit too warm itself?
a bit is a touch different than opening your front door at midnight and walking into satan's armpit
That's a vivid comparison, thanks
If it does reach 110, that’s only for a day or two a year. Most summer days it’s below 100. And I live in San Diego county. In Northern California in the SF Bay Area, I don’t think it ever got to 110 in the nine years I lived there. There was basically one hot month a year, where it would get to the low 90s for a couple weeks.
Texas also sits next to a very warm body of water. Swimming in it is like bathing in a pool of hot sweat. The humidity is off the charts. I could get a general read on the comfort level by which direction the planes were landing and taking off. They always head into the wind. One direction meant high temps plus high humidity, and the other meant less off both due to a cool front blowing in from up north.
California has the opposite. Sure most of it is a desert, but the cool Pacific Ocean cools the air and contributes a lot less humidity.
Houston is beyond trans-Floridian levels of humidity, that's true. DFW can be humid to people from dryer places, but it's very much not Floridian and generally dry enough that, for instance, sweating works how it's supposed to. El Paso is literally in a desert.
As someone from the northern Mississippi basin y’all are crazy to live there. I’ll stick to my wet cool climates. I can handle the frigid weeks and the snow isn’t that bad
LOL, the weather is really not so bad, and after living in a Montreal winter for several weeks, no thank you.
Politically, the biggest of the assholes want the rest of us to leave, which makes me want to stay more. These motherfuckers will not steal Willie Nelson and Townes Van Zandt and Molly Ivins and Anne Richards and Chopped & Screwed and Tejano and Tex-Mex and delicious motherfucking brisket from us.
I still believe there is a better Texas, though I concede there will never be a perfect Texas.
I feel that as an Ohioan. I’m here half out of spite and half out of inability to find a job in the northeast or Chicago.
It’s a hellhole here, but it’s my hellhole and we were supposed to be a purple state that matters none of this fashy bullshit. Fuckin hell these confederate flag waving motherfuckers better get the hell out of the home of John Brown and Ulysses Grant
Inland Imperial who fucks around in the high desert a lot, even with the heat a bit of shade can drop the effective temp down quite a bit. Its the sun that is dangerous really, or maybe im just that much of a pale assed motherfucker IDK.
I’ve lived in the northern Bay Area my whole life. I’ve had several summers with 110+ degree weeks. The closer you get to SF, the cooler it is though.
No CA really is comfortable outside of some low deserts and high mountainous areas. Stuff stays pretty much in the middle year round.
The dry heat in socal is really not that bad, especially in the shade. What's far worse is the stifling humidity in the east, south, etc.
Anywhere not on the coast or high in mountains, yes. I'm in a large valley, and summers can be pretty rough. Not Phoenix rough, but still rough.
California is a big place.