http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/07/opinion/egan-jerry-browns-revenge.html?emc=edit_ty_20140307&nl=opinion&nlid=21157678&_r=0
First, raising taxes does not kill job creation, but it does annoy job creators. At Brown’s urging, voters in 2012 approved, by a healthy margin, a plan to raise taxes on the high end. This new money is the biggest reason why the state went from a $25 billion budget deficit to a projected surplus of almost $5 billion. Instead of building more prisons, California has restored the funding flow to its once-vaunted public university system.
At the same time, job growth has been robust. Trying to poach payrolls in this state, Governor Perry said, “I hear building a business in California is next to impossible.� Maybe a traditional business. But not the new-century kind. California leads the nation in new high-tech, bio-tech and manufacturing jobs, a result in part that Brown attributes to the “yeasty and innovative� nature of the state. Perry can’t duplicate that, no matter how many corporate subsidies he passes around.