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
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.
Texas is a high tax, low service state.
California is a high tax, high service state.
Texas spends their taxes on corporate welfare.
California spends their taxes on education, infrastructure and health care.
A company made me an offer last year when I was looking for startups, but they required me to move to Austin. Austin is a nice place, but it’s unfortunately surrounded by Texas. Fast forward to today and they are moving out of Texas because it’s too expensive and they are having trouble retaining talent. The incentives the city has been offering to foster their own Silicon Valley are stalling because it’s not much cheaper and the state legislature is a Barnum circus of inhumanity.
Any state that supports a law enforcement that DOESN'T see children dying in a building tells me right away what they are about. Udalve spoke so much to their character and how it was handled after. Just deplorable. I have friends that left the state after the abortion ban because they are women. So, yea. They got issues down there.
I understand why women might be stuck in Texas. But it seems foolish af to move somewhere that would force you to incubate a fetus inside your body.
Can't blame them, Texas is an ugly, shithole state and most of the politicians are worse.
As a Texan, not sure what part of Texas you think is so ugly. There is a lot of beauty here.
Our politicians just suck.
Having lived there, Houston to College Station to Waco is 100% ugly. Really all of East Texas. I admit the hill country is pretty decent.
I moved to Seattle, though. Most Texans don't know what they're missing.
I've traveled the country full time in an RV for two years. Yes, there are more beautiful places in the US (Sequoia, Redwood Forests, Olympic National Park, etc), but I'm just saying that Texas isn't all just some drab hole-in-the-wall. If you want that, go to Ohio or Indiana.
Every state has some beauty. Ohio has Cuyahoga Valley and Indiana can see the Chicago skyline across Lake Michigan.
I love that you say every state has some beauty and then say that the best thing in Indiana is that you can see the next state over.
I'm enjoying the hell out of just my commute here in Seattle, on a motorcycle in the rain.
Mt Rainier is unbelievable, the way it looms.
Driving i35, getting to i35, its all parking lots and shopping malls.
It looks like a giant oversized strip mall.
Within city walls it's beautiful. But since Texas is so car dependent most of what you see are strip malls, giant bridges, and poor road design.
i mean, if you could appreciate it anywhere it would be a lot better. how the fuck do so many people actually not have ANYWHERE BETTER to take pictures of wildflowers than the side of the freeway. that really highlights a big problem with Texas. they may have had beauty, but they bought, sold, rented, and ruined most of it until there's only a trash covered vestige at a dangerous crossing left. it's the biggest contiguous state, and somehow has nearly the least public land.
Fucking lmao. Dude, Texas has its own beauty, but it isn't a pretty state.
I have driven across 49 states. When I go back to the photos I took in Texas, I think "huh, wonder what I thought looked cool here... That lump in the distance?"
Yes there are hills. There's even mountains. Not near anything though. Where everything is, it's flat as fuck. Brown, dirt, sandy boring.
Hamilton Pool is the most gorgeous thing in the whole state. It is a sight to behold. It's also 1 hour of boring scenery away from any group of humans conducting any kind of business.
Easily the ugliest scenery of any state I can think of. Second only to Alabama and Mississippi? At least Louisiana has the bayous. Tennessee has real mountains. Oklahoma has... Grass?
Texas is fucking hideous. It's like Nevada without anything cool.
This was always going to happen
Estateware you can't get an abortion and the power grid isn't stable who's only attraction was cheaper rent than San Francisco and even that's not really a thing anymore? What a dumb move
I would invite you to consider that tech billionaires value their talent so little that they'd make them move to Texas for a tax break.
I was asked to relocate to Texas for a position when I was hired. I said no thanks and went to the NYC office instead.
I know I wasn't the only one to do this.
They were trying to hire in Austin and instead only found NYC talent. Tough break for them.
Well, I heard that Austin is very good and progressive, especially compared to the rest of Texas, and feels free of weird shit. But that was quite some time ago, and now it seems not to outweigh being in Texas anymore
Unfortunately, you would still be a blue dot in a sea of red backwater thinking, human rights limiting, crazy religious, and racist people that make up Texas as a whole.
The state government also hates the city and works to actively sabotage it. When they tried to reform their police after they murdered several protestors, the state took over the department. Despite being a small city, it has terrible transportation because the state never allocates any funding for it.
Right? I always wondered why tech moved to Texas it has all the things data centers would hate:
If anything, I'd think they'd move to the great lakes.
For the first two decades of the century, what it meant to be Texan—as explained by the state’s politicians—was largely wrapped up in a feeling of competition with California.
As a Californian, I can’t help but think of that Mad Men meme: “I don’t think about you at all” or some such. Do all Texans really think this way or does this author just have a huge California-shaped chip on his shoulder?
Yeah, as weird as it sounds older Texans see California as some sort of threat, some weird liberalist state that is too far gone to save or some shit. Almost any political conversation thats had about red vs blue ends up mentioning California. It is the typical 'old man shaking fist at clouds' group though. Younger peeps either dont care or say something like 'why would you want to move there??' Wothout any way to backup why they said it.
"there's nothing wrong with California that a good earthquake wouldn't fix". Heard that one a few times.
"Thanks for the tax breaks, but now we are off to the next tax breaks"
I don't think he knows about second tax breaks.
Anyone in tech who moved from Cali to Texas was completely misguided... Case in point, ElOn
Nah, makes sense for him. If you make less than 600k, California taxes you less than Texas. After 600k, Texas taxes you less.
If youre rich, Texas makes sure you pay less taxes than poor people.
Joe rogan, Musk, whoever. They move to Texas to not pay taxes.
To the surprise of very few with functional brains.
Bait n switch thrills nobody
Texas never attracted techies, it attracted a few Republican tech CEOs with disproportionate shares of power. I've always turned down recruiters trying to get me to move there regardless of how good the job is on paper. If I've got options, I'm choosing to live on one of the coasts. There's nothing for me in Texas. I mean I've been to Bucees once, it's worth visiting. But I'm gonna guess the novelty is probably over by the second visit.
austin is super expensive now, and tech companies have left. it’s hot, humid, and you or your wife might die if her a pregnancy is non viable. or if the power grid goes out. i have family who moved there but i sure wouldn’t.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
