Calif. Delegation To Study Texas Job Growth
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A Republican-led group of California lawmakers and Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that they will head to Texas next week to hear from businesses that left the state.
GOP Assemblyman Dan Logue, who is leading the delegation, said the two-day trip is not intended to bash California, but rather examine how Texas has been able to lure companies in recent years. Texas has added 165,000 jobs during the last three years while California has lost 1.2 million jobs, he said.
"We want to sit down with these businesses that could not stay in our state and find out why they left, what caused them to pick up their family, their roots, and move to another state in order to compete, in order to grow their businesses," Logue told reporters during a Capitol news conference.
California faces a remaining $15.4 billion budget deficit after Gov. Jerry Brown signed $11.2 billion in spending cuts and fund transfers. The governor now wants a special election to renew recent tax increase but has been unable to get the Republican votes he needs to put the question on the ballot.
Republican lawmakers have pressed Brown for reforms they say will help California's fiscal health and business community, including revamping environmental and other regulations. GOP lawmakers hope the trip to Texas, which is addressing a $27 billion deficit over two years, produces "common-sense ideas" to get businesses growing in California.
"The jobs. That is the primary message we have for California, is that we get it," said Logue, who lives in Linda and represents the valley and foothill region north and east of Sacramento. "If we want to fix this state, we're going to have to grow the economy. And we can only do that by keeping the jobs that we have here and bring in jobs from other parts of the country back here."
Logue is among 10 Republican lawmakers who will make the trip with Newsom, the former San Francisco mayor who was elected lieutenant governor last year, and one Democrat, Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani of Livingston, a small Central Valley town south of Modesto.
They will head Thursday and Friday to Austin, where they will be joined by representatives from the California Manufacturing and Technology Association, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the California Teachers Association.
In addition to hearing from businesses that relocated from California to Texas, the group is scheduled to meet with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, and Donna Arduin, who served as the first finance director under former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Estelle Lemieux, a lobbyist for the teachers association, said the trip will be a learning opportunity. The union is one of the most powerful political forces in California and supports Brown's proposal for a tax extension.
"There are a lot of differences between California and Texas, but as Assemblyman Logue said, we're not there to compare. We're there to learn. I'm glad that's the objective," she said.
Lawmakers say taxpayers will not be paying for the trip. Some said they were paying for the trip with personal money, while others planned to use campaign funds, which include contributions from business interests.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
