The New York Times published a piece Monday attacking Texas for giving financial incentives to companies to encourage them to move to the southern state.
This article follows only one day after the Times published a piece that attacked states in general for “crony capitalism” while ignoring the massive crony capitalism of the Obama Administration.
Author Louise Story notes that Texas gives out more of the incentives than any other state. Of course, the Times ignores the fact that Texas, unlike leftist states like California, is not going bankrupt and is a Republican stronghold. Texans are not shy about boasting that they lead the nation in job creation.
Story launches a populist attack on Texas and Governor Rick Perry, with quotes like this: “Yet the raw numbers mask a more complicated reality behind the flood of incentives, the examination shows, and raise questions about who benefits more, the businesses or the people of Texas.”
The paper grudgingly admits Texas has “huge job growth”, but tries to mitigate that fact with this: ” …the state has the third-highest proportion of hourly jobs paying at or below minimum wage.”
And again Story must admit, “And despite its low level of unemployment …” then qualifies that with “Texas has the 11th-highest poverty rate among states.”
Governor Perry explained the state’s appeal:
Facebook, eBay, Apple — all of those within the last two years have announced major expansions in Texas. They’re coming because it is given, it is covenant, in these boardrooms across America, that our tax structure, regulatory climate and legal environment are very positive to those businesses.
Perry acknowledged the state’s poverty level, saying, “we are going to have people that fall through the cracks.” But he responded the best way to ameliorate that problem was to create jobs; Texans, he said, “don’t want government assistance when they can do it themselves.”