When Tennessean Davy Crockett lost his seat in Congress, he famously told the world “Y’all can go to hell. I’m going to Texas.” Now California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore is following Crockett’s lead.
[A]s with many in the Golden State, I have found it hard to earn enough to support my family. My old aerospace clientele has fled to greener, less-expensive pastures. Combined with the drain on our savings caused by six years of public service in the Assembly, we have come to the reluctant conclusion that it is time to move.
The good news is that there are still other places in America where the taxes are lower and the regulations less onerous than here in California, my home for most of the past 36 years.
One such place is Texas.
It is there, I am pleased to announce, that I have accepted a position as Senior Visiting Scholar for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. My first order of business is to write a book on the Texas Model of how low taxes and low government spending, a light and predictable regulatory environment, respect for property rights, and a business-friendly legal climate has turned Texas into America’s jobs generating dynamo. (In fact, as part of my research, I’ve noted that almost 2 million Californians moved out of the Golden State in the past ten years – Texas, with no income tax, having received the largest number of Californians.)
Believe me, with what I know about California, having been the chief Republican on the Assembly’s tax writing committee, Texas is a vastly different land in regards to public policy.
Welcome to Texas, Mr. DeVore. You’ll fit right in. I followed a similar path back to the Lone Star State a few years back, after several years of living in blue state Maryland and working in insane Washington DC. My family and I left many friends behind but haven’t regretted the move to the freest, greatest state in the land.
A word of advice, though: Austin is a great town to live near. It’s a blue dot surrounded by a very red continent.
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