Texas vs. California

Forbes:

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On the economic front, since the end of the recession in June 2009, Texas’ private sector seasonally adjusted job growth through April 2019 was 27.2% compared to California’s slightly weaker 23.9%. But California shed a far larger proportion of jobs during the recession than did Texas, so it had a deeper hole to climb out of. Extending the horizon by five years to January 2004 shows a far different story, with Texas adding 38.4% more private sector jobs, compared to California’s 21%—an 83% growth rate advantage for Texas.

Texas’ more rapid job growth is likely due in some measure to its tax and regulatory policies. According to the Tax Foundation, California’s business tax climate ranked 49th in the nation in 2018, compared to Texas at 15th. A key component in California’s weak ranking is that it features America’s highest individual income tax rate, 13.3%, making California’s the second-most burdensome income tax in the nation behind New Jersey. Texas has no individual income tax. California’s per capita state and local tax collections were $6,077 in 2016, the 8th-highest in the nation. Texas state and local government collected $4,020, ranking 29th.
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Regarding public education, 36% of Texas state and local funding is dedicated to education, compared to 26% in California. This drives California to have among the nation’s largest average student-to-teacher ratios, 22.5 students in average daily attendance per teacher in 2016, the 3rd-highest in the nation, compared to 14.2 in Texas, at 26th with the national average being 15.1 students per teacher.
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In spite of California’s more generous social safety net and steeply progressive income tax system, it still has the nation’s highest level of poverty, according to the Supplemental Poverty Measure. When accounting for the cost of housing, the value of all government benefits, including noncash benefits such as food stamps and rental assistance, as well as out-of-pocket medical costs and taxes, California’s poverty rate is 19%. Texas’ Supplemental Poverty Measure as averaged over the three years 2015 to 2017, was 14.7%, within the margin-of-error of the national average, 14.1%. Proportionately, California had 29% more of its population living in poverty than did Texas—again, this statistic does account for out-of-pocket medical expenses.

Two big factors drive California’s higher poverty rate. First, new jobs outside of California’s booming tech sector haven’t kept pace with the population—a job is the best antidote to poverty. And second, a dense thicket of restrictive local zoning and environmental regulations that act to increase artificial scarcity of the state’s housing stock, inflating prices for everyone, especially the working poor.

Not mentioned in the article is California's growing problem with homelessness and are resulting in deterioration in sanitation and increased outbreaks of disease.  Major cities in California are dealing with feces covered streets and drug needles also coving the streets.  Texas has a healthier environment.