Meet Your Next. U.S. President

[Al B. Sure!]

Dallas also has one of the worst airports in the world. How hard it is to make their trains run on schedule? And no free public wifi.

They tried free wi-fi city-wide here in Philly. It was a failure. It cost too many tax dollars to operate and its connection was terrible.

You can't blame the city of Dallas for not having it.

[DaShi]

I'm talking about their airport.

[notyoueither]

Wow. Texas sucks ass. They... do have low taxes.

Partial explanation for the suckage of ass?

[Dinner]

But Perry's policies attract jobs! Sure, almost half of them are minimum wage service jobs (as in literally almost half of the supposed jobs he attracted to Texas are minimum wage with no benefits) but the state has the highest per capita amount of fast food outlets now so the good times they are a rolling! "Let them flip burgers (until they're 65)."

[Al B. Sure!]

Partial explanation for the suckage of ass?

Probably. I was amazed a few months back when Slowwhand showed me how Texas has far lower taxes than PA, a budget surplus while PA is billions in debt, etc. I imagined Texas as a paragon of fiscal sanity but that 'sanity' probably comes at a cost.

[Asher]

Wow. Texas sucks ass. They don't have a budget problem, though, and do have low taxes.

http://www.businessinsider.com/texas-state-budget-crisis-2011-1

There's One Huge State Budget Crisis That Everyone Is Refusing To Talk About

You know the story and you know the names: states like Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and California are supposed to be in huge financial trouble thanks to bloated governments, business-unfriendly regulations, and strong public sector unions.

After a crisis-free 2010, investors are expected to punish these hotbeds of bad governance in a muni bond market rout, at least if pundits like Meredith Whitney are correct.

But there's one state, which is fairly high up on the list of troubled states that nobody is talking about, and there's a reason for it.

The state is Texas.

This month the state's part-time legislature goes back into session, and the state is starting at potentially a $25 billion deficit on a two-year budget of around $95 billion. That's enormous. And there's not much fat to cut. The whole budget is basically education and healthcare spending. Cutting everything else wouldn't do the trick. And though raising this kind of money would be easy on an economy of $1.2 trillion, the new GOP mega-majority in Congress is firmly against raising any revenue.

So the bi-ennial legislature, which convenes this month, faces some hard cuts. Some in the Texas GDP have advocated dropping Medicaid altogether to save money.

So why haven't we heard more about Texas, one of the most important economy's in America? Well, it's because it doesn't fit the script. It's a pro-business, lean-spending, no-union state. You can't fit it into a nice storyline, so it's ignored.

But if you want to make comparisons between US states and ailing European countries, think of Texas as being like America's Ireland. Ireland was once praised as a model for economic growth: conservatives loved it for its pro-business, anti-tax, low-spending strategy, and hailed it as the way forward for all of Europe. Then it blew up.

This is the sleeper state budget crisis of 2011, and it will be praised for doing great, right up until the moment before it blows up.

And how many teachers did they lay off, and are still with a massive deficit?

[Al B. Sure!]

What? Didn't they have a big budget surplus just last year?

[Dinner]

Wow. Texas sucks ass. They don't have a budget problem, though, and do have low taxes.

Nope, they don't have that low of taxes at all. At least not for actual people. The total tax burden (state and local) in Texas is with in two percentage points of California but the Republicans keep shouting that Texas is supposedly low tax while California is supposedly high tax. That's just not true unless you make over $250,000 a year. The main difference is the cost of real estate and the primary driver for why most of Texas costs so little while most of California costs so much is because Texas is a sucky place to live while California is a great place to live so the market bids up land prices here in California. Would you rather live in a flat place which has little natural beauty which is hot as hell & humid as as an alligator's arse hole or would you rather live in a place with great weather, beautiful mountains, and gorgeous views of the ocean? The market has spoken.

[giblets]

Wow. Texas sucks ass. They don't have a budget problem, though, and do have low taxes.

I'm not laughing at you. But I am worried that this might be a widespread perception.

[Dinner]

What? Didn't they have a big budget surplus just last year?

NO! NO! NO!


They have a giant deficit, on a per capita basis much worse then California's, but they played stupid accounting games (like refusing to fund Medicare which they're legally required to do and which the courts will force them to do but Perry just left it out of the budget, he also pretended most costs will come next year even though they actually have to be paid this year, etc...) so Perry could pretend he balanced the budget when it is in fact worse then ever. It's a complete fabrication.

[Asher]

What? Didn't they have a big budget surplus just last year?

Few years ago they did (on paper at least).

Then Perry was all "Imma cut taxes!!!!!!! TONS OF THEM!" and lo and behold, revenue fell such they have an incredibly large deficit.

[Asher]

Texas is dealing with it though.

They're laying off 7,300 criminal justice state employees, and about 100,000 teachers. But hey, they're spending $25M a year now to get a Formula One race. Priorities.

What's more is Perry is claiming it's "not the state's fault" that 100,000 teachers were laid off. Even though he slashed the annual education budget by $7.8B.

What a class act.

[Docfeelgood]

The New York Times: The Texas unmiracle (an opinion piece but still true).




And let us not forget all the many, many ways in which Texas sucks:


[/COLOR][/LEFT]

I really hate to admitting your almost correct.

[Asher]

Meanwhile Alberta is on pace to post a sizable surplus. Oh, and we have zero debt.

But let's keep looking at Texas as a role model.

[Docfeelgood]

Wow. Texas sucks ass. They don't have a budget problem, though, and do have low taxes.

not so sure about the low taxes.