Texas has reached two new lows, according to a CNBC ranking. For the first time, Texas was last in the nation for quality of life, and it slid out of the top five best states for business in the annual report.
The state received a mixed report card. In addition to earning an F for “life, health and inclusion,” Texas earned C+s for education and infrastructure while notching A+s for “economy” and “access to capital.”
The report cited as weaknesses Texas’ attacks on inclusiveness, reproductive rights and voters rights. It also noted the state’s weak worker protections and poor access to health care, as well as its “thirteenth-highest violent crime rate” in the nation and rank of 37 for “licensed childcare facilities per capita.”
Various state policies — such as a ban of diversity, equality and inclusion programs in state-funded schools; a refusal to expand Medicaid; and legislation targeting transgender people — contributed to the low rankings.
There’s also the state’s continued efforts aimed at limiting cities’ self-governance, most recently the so-called Death Star bill. This is particularly striking since cities are so crucial to Texas’ economic engine.
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Yeah-but, yeah-but…sure, there’s all that sorta bad stuff… there’s still the weather, right?? Oh, forget it…
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The state has landed in the bottom half of the quality-of-life rankings for a decade while maintaining its spot in the top five for business, but this year’s rankings are a sign that Texas’ politics are bogging down the state’s economic engine.
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I have a large number of family and friends in Texas (DFW and AUS) who bemoan all of the issues above, but again, per Texas Gov’t they’re filthy, degenerate city dwellers, and need to be ignored and marginalized.
While I, and probably most of the board agree with the criticisms, those are almost all positives for the reactionaries in gov’t and the populace. There is out-and-out hatred of city folk in many of the rural panhandle communities (I spent more time that I like to think about in rural Plainview a few decades ago and it was bad then, Pre-Trump)
So thanks (no irony) for sharing, but with how TX is organized legislatively, my friend in the DA’s office feels like they’re doomed, much less those who just live in the damn state. And then there’s the dark underside - my friends Mother, who moved to AUS to be with her kids was always a conservative “I’ve got mine” sort, but still was one of those few relatively successful women in business in the 70s-90s. Since moving to TX and finding lots of like minded conservative retirees around her, became a deep state believer.
I keep telling my family and friends to get out of state, but homes and businesses/careers are a bitch.
While I’m not sure we really need another “bitch about Texas” thread , the President of Texas A&M has just resigned after a week of turmoil over the botched hiring of a professor to run the journalism department. Apparently, the hire was deemed “too woke” by influential alumni who scuttled her appointment even though her hiring had already been announced.
Well, I was struck by how all the state’s faults and failings were summarized so succinctly. I generally suck at succinctness, so I seized the succor successfully offered by the Express-News editors.
Yeah, I live here and I’m not goin’ anywhere. And I will continue to humble brag about the state of the state.
Here’s another take on the Death Star Bill that eliminates pesky local ordinances and regulations protecting construction workers from the heat:
On June 13, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed HB 2127 — the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act — which bars cities and counties from passing regulations that are stricter than state ones. It also overturns local rules such as ordinances in Austin and Dallas that mandate rest breaks for construction workers. The law takes effect Sept. 1.
So much for the freedom of local officials to decide what’s best for their citizens - you gotta align to the State Government!
I’m in Austin and the only reason I’m still here is family. Otherwise I’ve been looking into northern-ish places, not least of which being for temperature reasons.
At least around here, there’s still some good, affordable food from nearly every corner of the globe. If/when I ever leave the state, that’ll be one thing I genuinely miss.
But that’s in those dirty cities with all those furriners and smacks of inclusiveness, so maybe a bad thing as far as the rest of the state is concerned
Where I live, in the Bay Area, we’ve got great and reasonably affordable food from all over. I have two Afghan groceries where I can get naan in walking distance of me. Plenty of civilized places have great food, some with reasonably affordable housing, unlike here.
I don’t disagree in broad strokes, but I have yet to see anywhere else in the country with the combination of sheer variety and affordability of cuisine you can find in the Houston area.
Yes, there’s either variety or affordability elsewhere, but not to the same extent. I would miss that. But that would not be a sufficient reason to stay by itself.
It’s surprisingly diverse around here (but much less so once you get beyond the metropolitan area). But again, it’s a city, so that doesn’t count where matters politically. So much so that the state carved out a special voting law just for Houston to forestall any potential blue waves.
I don’t remember where I read it, but I read an article recently that was partly about the ironies that Texas embodies. Specifically, the state political establishment hates renewable energy with a passion, and yet the traditional conservative business-friendly attitude of the state (i.e. low regulation) has led to Texas being one of the top states for production of renewable energy. The article did say that that low-regulation attitude may be changing, which is an irony in a different direction.
All I recall of Texas is from driving Mama Plant to Texas for a visit with her niece.
Freeway speed traps that I could see on the vast flat landscape from miles away. Of course they reduced speeding, as the police could see me coming and going for miles.
, the President of Texas A&M has just resigned after a week of turmoil over the botched hiring of a professor to run the journalism department. Apparently, the hire was deemed “too woke” by influential alumni who scuttled her appointment even though her hiring had already been announced.
