20 MPH faster than you

History used to be made in New York.  Not any more.  In case you, like us, were stuck behind a Prius and missed the news from Texas:

By tomorrow, September 1, 2011, the Texas Legislature will have upped the state's maximum speed limit to 85 miles per hour, faster than any other state in the nation.

Rick Perry

We're realists here in the Finger Lakes.  We've had to endure two Cuomos and a carpetbagger.  We understand that the perfect can be the enemy of the good, but we don't need no Romneycare.  So, watch this and let us know what you think.

USA Today ignores state taxes

Print media on the cutting edge

In this morning's USA Today,  Dennis Cauchon reports that Texas' economy is now larger than New York's.

Texas became the USA's second-largest economy during the past decade — displacing New York and perhaps heading one day toward challenging California — in one of the biggest economic shifts in the past half-century.

Cauchon credits the Lone Star State's exceptional growth on good luck and immigration.

"We're growing faster than everyone else, and this trend should last a good while," says economic forecaster Raymond Berryhill of Waco, Texas. His state enjoyed "good fortune and good planning" from having natural resources, immigration and successful technology businesses while avoiding the real estate bubble, he says.

Florida's share of the national economy grew more than any state except Texas as seniors took their wealth south.

We're not professional journalists or licensed economists here, but the fact that, unlike New York, neither Texas nor Florida impose a state income tax on their residents might be relevant to their recent growth.

Update!   Professor Reynolds has more on education in those same two low tax states.

New York prospector finds gold

Raffi at work

 

While Dicovery Channel's ill fated amateur gold miners were freezing their collective tuches off in Alaska, our fellow New Yorker Raffi Stepanian has been finding gold right on the sidewalks of our fair state.

Raffi Stepanian, a self-styled urban prospector, has discovered enough tiny jewellery fragments hidden in the sidewalks of the city's Diamond District to make a living.

Using nothing more than a Styrofoam cup, tweezers and a butter knife, he collects hundreds of dollars worth of gold, diamonds and rubies each week.

While the Empire State may not be creating as many jobs as Texas, there are still some free market opportunities if one looks hard enough, we guess.