(Thanks to David Flanders for the graphic)
Texas governor Rick Perry gloated that his “pro-business” policies allowed his state to steal 3,000 Toyota jobs from California. If true, that would be terrible public policy. But it now appears it’s not true, which is even worse…. f you take Rick Perry as completely correct, the best-case scenario is that he spent $40 million of taxpayer money to steal jobs from another state, creating no new jobs in the process. If you take Toyota at its word, it’s even worse: Rick Perry gave $40 million in public money to a corporation that would have moved to Texas anyhow. (Why not just deposit the payroll taxes of minimum wage-earning Texans directly into the bank account of the Toyota corporation and save some time?)
It’s been an article of faith (and a major talking point) among Rick Perry and Texas Republicans that Governor Goodhair’s policies and inspired leadership are responsible for the “Texas Miracle.” Few outside of Texas have dared to question this orthodoxy, but a deeper look reveals the truth doesn’t mesh with the propaganda.
In the case of Toyota’s move to Texas, one could argue Perry agreed to gift $40 million in taxpayer money to convince Toyota to do something it was already planning to do. Toyota management has stated that the planned move is about consolidating operations and bringing management closer to their manufacturing base, not which state offered it the best package of incentives and tax breaks. The $40 million, while certainly an early Christmas gift, didn’t move the needle for Toyota, because the company based their evaluation several metropolitan areas on a number of factors.
If one looked beyond Toyota’s move to Texas and looked below the surface of the Lone Star State’s economy, it would become clear that Perry’s “Texas Miracle” has been built on the backs of Texas’ poor would become evident. The truth is that Texas’ economy is the economic equivalent of a Potemkin village.
Rick Perry’s shitty pro-business anti-public tax policies are one reason that the state of Texas “ranks 50th in high school graduation rate, first in amount of carbon emissions, first in hazardous waste produced, last in voter turnout, first in percentage of people without health insurance, and second in percentage of uninsured kids.” And not to mention the fact that poaching companies from other states has been shown to be an insufficient way to address your own state’s employment situation.
The public face of the “Texas Miracle” is that Texas is open for business. It’s a low tax, business-friendly environment free of regulation and pesky government oversight. Business is free to do what business does best: injure, kill, and sicken workers maximize value for their shareholders.
If you look at Texas’ sorry performance when it comes to education, caring for children, worker safety, and health care, among other things, you’ll recognize the emphasis isn’t on the social safety net. Texas believes strongly in subsidizing business and working hard to attract business to God’s Country…but if you happen to be poor, sick, or live near a refinery that poisons the air and water near it, you’re on your own. Business needs to be allowed to conduct business as it sees fit. All government can do is mess things up. The health and safety of the poor, the sick, and the powerless don’t factor into the equation.
Depending on how the numbers are massaged, one could argue the Great Recession’s impact on Texas was less than other states. The state’s growing population base may be finding more opportunities available to them…but at what cost? What of the well-being of Texas’ minorities, poor, and sick? What about the state’s poor and insured children? Can Texas’ economy truly be called a “miracle” when it’s left so many behind, and when tax dollars are used to subsidize the already wealthy at their expense?
Rick Perry’s hardly an economic genius, but he’s a hero to the Texans who matter to him- wealthy White Conservative Christians. The other Texas can fend for itself.
