Perry says California companies created 14,000 Texas jobs
Texas Gov. Rick Perry says that his swings through California to poach businesses work.
As proof, Perry said Wednesday that California companies had created about 14,000 new jobs in Texas over the last two years.
These Golden State companies, which number 60 in all, have expanded, relocated or moved jobs to Texas, Perry said. Eleven of the businesses have relocated their headquarters to the Lone Star State, including longtime Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum.
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“As states continue to compete for jobs and investment, it’s clear the formula for this success exists in red states,” Perry said in a Wednesday statement.
His latest trip earlier this week to the Golden State included pit stops in Los Angeles, Orange County and Silicon Valley. Advertisements -- paid for by Americans for Economic Freedom, a conservative nonprofit started by Perry allies -- also ran on TV and radio in the state.
In one TV spot, a montage of sad-faced workers flash on the screen as Perry intones that “California is ranked the worst state in the country to do business because of tax-and-spend policies and a liberal leadership.”
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Then, Perry appears onscreen wearing hipster black eyeglasses as upbeat music plays: “Jobs and opportunities are fleeing to places like Texas,” he announces.
Many economists say that relatively few of California’s lost jobs can be blamed on businesses moving out of the state, despite some high-profile examples of companies who have moved elsewhere.
From 1992 to 2006, for example, only 2% of job losses in the Golden State were because of firm relocations, according to a study from the Public Policy Institute of California. Fewer than 1% of the state’s jobs leave annually, and that has remained consistent through times of boom or bust.
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