Texas’ economic lesson for Obama (and New Mexico)

I ran across this column from the Investors Business Daily which outlines some of the positive economic data coming from Texas and juxtaposing that data against the struggles of the national economy.

It’s a good article so far as it goes, but it doesn’t explain what makes Texas so darn attractive to entrepreneurs and businesses.

For starters, it has no personal income tax (New Mexico’s rate is 4.9% which is down from 8.2% a few years back thanks in part to Bill Richardson);

Texas is a Right to Work state meaning that workers cannot be compelled to join a union as a condition of employment (New Mexico has no such law);

Texas has a corporate income tax rate of zero while New Mexico’s will be 5.9% even after the recent corporate income tax cuts are phased in five years from now;

The aforementioned issues are all under the control of Texas’ elected officials, but Texas is also blessed to have less of its land mass owned by the federal government which allows the state to utilize and benefit from a far greater percentage of its land:

HT: Roger Mickelson