THINK HARD
Brian Brady had a comment in the Oregon Suicide post and it got me thinking. I had forwarded this news to some economic development clients of ours. Nike would make a great Texas brand. I just pulled up some of the largest employers in Oregon and found a couple first rate candidates for Texas passports:
Advanced Navigation & Positioning Corporation (ANPC) We got a few folks from here to the moon and back. We even knew where they were the whole time! ANPC would surely find some kindred spirits here.
AFMS Transportation We have a bigger port, a couple of trains and a freeway or two, plus two major airports, and no small expertise in extraterrestrial travel if needed. Houston was the first word uttered from the moon by man.
AVI BioPharma I have no idea what an antisense vaccine is, but I bet that there might be a place for these folks near the largest hospital complex in the world. and maybe they can get a breakthrough in recombinant RNA for some commonsense on the West Coast.
Avista Corp. Is an energy company. My question for these folks is, “Why not come play in the bigs?” Even if Avista is a green energy company, Texas leads in wind and everything else that keeps your shiny new max-iPad charged.
Fort Bend County near Houston has already gathered a couple $ million to market target to businesses in LA. The hit teams are forming to swoop in to rescue the productive. The numbers for relocating the whole business are compelling for an entrepreneur who is under assault by every government entity to whom he must pay tribute.
Why would a West Coast business owner consider moving to Texas? Bawld Guy likes bullet points so here we go:
- Cost of housing: half.
- Salaries let’s call it a push, unless you have union labor and then, as we say yipee ki yo!
- Income tax- What’s that?
- Welfare payroll levies reduced
- Residential Property tax-It’s how we pay for stuff like non teacher union schools and non union road construction.
- Business Property tax- We’re gonna give it back to you if you bring us your posse of productive citizens.
- Environmental regulations: We like nature, we hunt and fish. If you spill it wipe it up. Don’t do it if it will kill your kids.
- Healthcare: Best in the world. Arab princes fly their 747’s here for check-ups after the casino girls in London make their hearts go all pitter patter.
- If you really hate the weather, the tax savings and the enhanced profitability of your enterprise will pay for a nice vacation at the San Diego W.
So, if you see a West Coast business man chatting with a couple guys with mile wide smiles, firm handshakes and boots, you a witnessing a Texas Special Operation.
Jeff Brown says:
Hey Tom — Texas for me is a bitter-sweet experience. Bitter because it’s a constant reminder of what we used to be as a nation, and sweet because it’s showing us the way to reclaim that past glory.
Here’s another sweetener. With vacancy rates rising and rents falling most everywhere these days, we’ve actually experienced rent increases year over year. Try that in ‘can’t miss’ San Diego. 🙂
The longer this recession lasts, the more the Texas economy is gonna win in the long run. They’ll have a monster diversity in employment, and a labor force far more educated and diverse than most anywhere else.
Finally, and maybe most important when viewed big picture, they tend to scowl at anything smellin’ like moral hazard.
January 29, 2010 — 8:16 am
Al Lorenz says:
Tom, 30 years ago even Seattle had a significant conservative bend. There was a heritage of Scandanavian fishermen and loggers who were independent and had a strong work ethic. Folks fleeing from places like California brought their progressive ideas with them and the state has been following California in a nosedive ever since. So, while there might be some opportunities for business development, target the companies whose values include valuing freedom and capitalism or the imports might bring their disease with them.
January 29, 2010 — 10:14 am
Jake says:
It is because of posts like this that I have to stop reading this site. I am from OR, and if you have not read the bill, then you have no room to comment. Learn the facts, K.
January 29, 2010 — 3:23 pm
Mark Martin says:
They’ve got the Pacific coast, we have Galveston. They have coffee, Houston is the largest coffee importer in the nation. They have rain, we have rain. They have mountains, …OK they got us there. They have zoning, … OK they got us there as well.
But, they can’t beat us hosptality, medical, business, taxes, home prices, salaries, friendliness, and sports …plus, we have far more purdy ladies in Texas.
January 29, 2010 — 3:52 pm
Tom Johnson says:
@Jake: Al posted the bill here:
https://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/?p=11048
January 29, 2010 — 9:17 pm
Sean Purcell says:
Al, I’ve been trying to put something into perspective for a while now and I think you just nailed it for me: California obviously suffers from a raging infection of neo-progressivism – probably a fatal case. That much I knew… BUT: we are a carrier too! I love it.
Hey AZ, you should probably start wearing a mask; look what we did to OR and NV. Damn that’s good stuff Al. 🙂
January 29, 2010 — 11:36 pm
Greg Swann says:
> Hey AZ, you should probably start wearing a mask; look what we did to OR and NV.
I wish that were funny. I posted a Joel Kotkin article a while ago about California’s spending addiction versus the healthy parsimony of Texas. Arizona used to be like Texas, lately much more like California. The major difference, for now: We have successfully cut our state budget to correspond to anticipated tax receipts. California is going to file a BK instead.
January 30, 2010 — 8:24 am
Kevin Cottrell says:
We have lots of union organizing in St Louis Metro. Makes me long for the pro-business state of Texas and my time running a successful business in Austin, TX
January 30, 2010 — 1:15 pm
Geordie Romer says:
Al- I think blaming the Californians for Washington’s progressive lean is silly. The strong labor movement here has a lot to do with the Scandavian loggers and fisherman. The IWW was here long before the Californians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_General_Strike
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia_Massacre_(Washington)
PS. Texas is welcome to have Rossi and Eyman. We’re done with them here.
January 31, 2010 — 1:46 pm
Al Lorenz says:
@Geordie – You may be too young to remember the “Lesser Seattle” of Emmett Watson. Don’t Californicate Washington was one of its bylines. Of course, Emmett is out of action and his fears have come to happen. But, if you want to take credit that you came up with the union controlled welfare state we’ve become, more power to you. BTW, Rossi would win today and Eyman is more popular than ever. He’s virtually mainstream now.
February 1, 2010 — 11:25 am