Russ Steele
I have been looking for reports from Dan Logue's trip to Texas, and this morning he has a response to an editorial by Bill Lockyer, State Treasurer, implying that Texas was a third-world state and that "our state is winning" in the CA Political News.
. . . if you look at all the facts, Lockyer's premise that California is doing well on job creation is as credible as Charlie Sheen's "winning" rant. It seems to me that Mr. Lockyer’s aim is off, way off.
Dan cites the facts in his editoiral:
First, we should set the record straight on the California-versus-Texas jobs debate. When I and a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers visited Austin a few weeks ago to learn why Texas was creating jobs while the Golden State was struggling, I cited some statistics to explain our mission.
I said that from January 2008 to December 2010, Texas added more than 165,000 jobs while during the same time period, California lost 1.2 million jobs. For me and my colleagues, we saw those numbers as an indication that Texas was doing something right and California was doing something wrong.
Not surprisingly, Lockyer and others doubted those numbers. However, those numbers came from President Obama’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. To calculate the figures for both California and Texas, subtract the total employment of each state in January 2008 from the total employment in December 2010. The numbers are available for anyone to review on the bureau’s website.
However, those numbers came from President Obama’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. To calculate the figures for both California and Texas, subtract the total employment of each state in January 2008 from the total employment in December 2010. The numbers are available for anyone to review on the bureau’s website.
In fact, if you measured job growth over five years, the difference is even more staggering. The Texas Economic Development and Tourism office cited data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and found that Texas gained 546,900 jobs from February 2006 to February 2011 while California lost 939,700 jobs during the same time frame. Texas is the only Top 20 state that has more jobs today than it did five years ago.
You can read the whole editorial here, but Dan concludes with this "winning" analysis:
However, I do not consider it “winning” when we have 2.5 million Californians out of work. I do not consider it “winning” when California is ranked dead last in the country by Chief Executive magazine – holding the title of the worst state to do business in for seven years running. I do not consider it “winning” having the second highest unemployment rate in the country. I do not consider it “winning” by losing over 600,000 manufacturing jobs in the last ten years - many to China. If that is considered “winning” then maybe we should declare the Carolina Panthers Super Bowl Champions.
In past recessions California let the nation in the recovery. Today it sees like we are digging the economic hold deeper and deeper. We are no longer economic leaders but, eating the dust at the end of the pack. Why? What has changed in the Golden State?
Exit Question: How do we regain our economic leadership?
