Carnuccio: Low Taxes, Energy Industry Drives A Shifting Population
Free Market Friday: Recipe for a boom
By Michael C. Carnuccio
Bloomberg Businessweek recently reported on census data that illustrate a continuing trend as population shifts from dense, urban, high-tax American states and cities to those at the other end of the spectrum. Of the 20 fastest-growing cities from 2010 to 2013, four were in Texas, three in Florida, and one each in Nevada and Washington – all states with no personal income tax.
A second big factor is the proximity to areas where the ongoing energy boom made possible by new drilling technologies has created jobs. The Austin-Round Rock area in Texas topped the list with a 5.4-percent population increase. Oklahoma City was seventh and Houston, Denver and Dallas all made the top 10.
Those people are coming from Illinois, California, New York and Pennsylvania – all high-tax states that also have a strong anti-energy bias among their political leaders.
So the recipe for an economic boom continues to be restrained taxation and the sensible and aggressive extraction of energy, two things the current administration in Washington is not known for favoring.