Governor Rick Perry is in California this week as part of his campaign to lure businesses to Texas, attempting to finish in person what his radio ads started.
In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News Perry said that California Governor Jerry Brown's comments that Perry's radio ad was "a fart" gave the campaign a lot of publicity. Which is fair since it's not every day an elected official publicly references farts. Perry, who is nothing if not sophisticated, proceeded to make reference to Texas' collective ass:
Perry did not disclose the names of the businesses he was meeting with and will not hold public events, but he was more than eager to pump up what he described as the Lone Star State's best qualities for business: low taxes, few regulations and lenient labor laws, which he said California lacks."Twelve years ago, California wasn't looking over its shoulder," he said. "They're not looking over their shoulder now -- they're looking at our backside."
But for all its business-friendliness, Texas is syphoning more lower-income households from the Golden State than it is jobs. According to the chief economist for the real estate site Trulia, typically California loses a net total of 9000 jobs each year. That isn't much of a dent in a state economy of 18 million jobs.
But in 2011, 120 people left California for every 100 that moved there, and those people were largely from households making less than $60,000 a year. Texas is among the five states with the biggest influx of people from California, though that might change after they see Perry in person.
