Originally published at: Come for the opportunity, leave because of the poor healthcare, education and culture wars: Texas and Florida slump in livability rankings | Boing Boing
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Especially if your business doesn’t require electricity.
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Imagine if economically sane people ran the money from those oil fields and parlayed that into tech to make Texas sunshine into solar…
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No surprise there. States run by fascists and theocrats* don’t top the lists of places where most people want to move or willingly stay.
[* I’d add Libertarians, but their experiments in governance usually don’t last past a few months at best before bears or some other force of nature takes over.]
Even the House of Saud, one of the most short-sighted and greedy clans in history, finally wised up on that count after Prince Bonesaw took over. That’s how backwards Abbott and his ilk are.
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2nd in nation isn’t too bed. Also lots of wind power.
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TIL! Thanks 
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That would be nice.
Instead, a few oil/fracking billionaires effectively run the state, via PACs that finance the fascists in the capitol. During the recent session of the Politboro, they made it harder for solar and wind power startups in Texas to gain a foothold.
Too bad they neglected to upgrade the infrastructure to handle the existing wind & solar plants:
Solar and wind input is setting records, but the state’s inefficient grid is unable to handle the full load it could deliver in the ongoing heat wave.
During the recent session of the Politboro, they were trying to figure out what to do with a record budget surplus.
Not a nickel extra for teachers, or education. Big surprise, there…
The Czar immediately called a special session, in order to get property tax breaks, & promised to keep doing so until he got his way. He finally got his way, but still hasn’t breathed a word about education, other than railing about the usual bullshit re: DEI and vouchers.
This state has gone to shit ever since Ann Richards left office.
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Which Texas fought tooth and nail because most of the funding and legal mandates came from Obama…
Which they, of course fought (and lost) in court…
And are trying to roll back to this day…
Despite it being the only reason their power grid doesn’t collapse more often than it already does…
In other words, the Federal government doing its job to drag them into the future despite their hick legislators.
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My parents took me and my brothers to Texas 60 years ago during the hottest most humid summer months. It was unbearable. I’ve lived in CA 70 years, been to a dozen countries and a dozen states. I would never live anywhere else, but New Zealand would be tolerable. Here I have housing security, food security, healthcare security and income security, but it’s the climate that’s to die for. That’s why people tolerate the crowds and high costs. You get what you pay for and that means good roads, schools and other public services
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… and don’t forget the climate catastrophes 
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There is a theme running through all 10. I’ll leave it to you to guess.
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A real budget surplus, or a surplus created by not spending the budgeted money? (Doug Ford’s favorite trick. He’d catch hell in a legislature and press if he cut medical and education budgets, so he just doesn’t spend the money, then claims a “surplus”.)
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Lone Star… out of five
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It’s a real budget surplus, due to increased sales tax revenue, higher energy prices, etc.
About $32 billion.
The State constitution requires a balanced budget, so budgeted money has to be spent.
But the surplus doesn’t have to be spent… some, or all of it could be held over until the next session of the Politboro in a couple of years.
This article goes into more detail.
They had better take care of the schools and teachers, or people are gonna get out the torches and pitchforks.
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Currently in Texas.
Operation “Get Our Daughters Out of Texas” is in progress.
New house has been acquired (Bellingham, WA). Wife and kids will be moving up in the next few months (new house needs some minor things done).
I’ll be staying behind for job for a year, maybe two, for job. I had to actually come out of retirement and get a job because my wife’s income wasn’t enough to swing the move. I’m secretly wanting to stay long enough to vote against Abbott and Cruz and the other members of the Hitler youth.
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Believe it or not they are. I saw crazy numbers of wind farms when I came through Texas a few months ago.
Of course, it’s still all primarily arranged for the benefit of energy companies and big landowners. But, that’s Texas.
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One close to me, formerly a senior executive in a major financial firm, had reason to meet zillionaire and former US Presidential candidate Ross Perot at his family ranch in the scrublands of northern Texas. In the course of conversation, she asked Perot how his family ended up in such a miserable location. She said he looked her in the eye and drawled, “Mule died.”
How many Texas are there due to mishaps in a migration?
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Prince Bonesaw was born in 1985. Back in 1973, Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, a former Saudi Arabian oil minister, said “The stone age didn’t end because we ran out of stones, and the oil age won’t end because we run out of oil.”
So at some level, the House of Saud have been wise to it for a while.
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