San Diego is losing a(nother) good employer to Texas. Websense is leaving, moving to Austin. See the article below (and the many comments after — many of my comments are also posted on my Facebook blog on this).
445 San Diego jobs — GOOD jobs — are about to disappear into the Lone Star State. 445 of our local friends and neighbors are about to join the ranks of the unemployed — unless they move to Texas with Websense, which I suspect a fair number will.
The press and public are putting too much importance on the $4.5 million the state of Texas is paying to entice Website to come to Austin. That money was NOT nearly enough to entice a company of that size to decide to disrupt operations, pull up stakes and leave sunny San Diego.
The money probably DID help Austin get the nod — but only in preference to the many OTHER states more business friendly than California. In other words, the company owners had correctly deduced that San Diego and California were no longer “bottom line” friendly governments. The Texas subsidy only helped them decide WHICH state to move to — and probably was not the determining factor.
Think otherwise? Imagine New Jersey offering TWICE that amount to move Websense to the Garden State. [NOTE: NJ is one of the few states competing with us in a number of “worst” rankings in various economic categories. Generally Illinois and New York are our other main “competitors” in this race to the bottom.] Any chance Websense would have fled California for New Jersey? Not hardly.
The responses from liberals demonstrate how clueless, and sometimes downright heartless they are. One cereal liberal troll commenter in the U-T dismissed the move with “Good riddance.” Here’s what I wrote in response:
Remember, Steve Hart is a “compassionate liberal.” “Good riddance” — says, Hart — to 445 good San Diego jobs. 445 of our friends and neighbors shortly will be unemployed. Other businesses and their employees harmed by lost customers. Less tax revenue for government, while more will be drawing unemployment.
I”m sure glad that Hart is compassionate. Imagine his comments if he weren’t!
Steve Hart is indeed Hartless.
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But here’s one part that might be of interest, responding to a liberal’s contention that Texas utility rates are going up:
Yes, Texas electricity rates are rising — just like ours. The huge gap in rates is NOT closing.
- Texas — 8.51 cents per kWh
- California — 14.66 cents per kWh — 72.3% higher than TX. Moreover, the CA industrial rate is more than DOUBLE the Texas rate.
And I say again — SDG&E — one of the three highest utilities in the NATION — charges much higher rates than the CA average.
When will this California job hemorrhaging be recognized as a pressing problem? I don’t know. But I bet the shock to the Websense employees is causing some to reassess their blind support for the Democrat People’s Republic of California. Too late for them, unfortunately.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/feb/06/texas-austin-perry-jobs-economy-websense/