Texas has the best electric grid in the US except for when it is needed the most like when it's hot or cold.
I'm sure the people freezing to death are happy about the budget surplus.

#5 | POSTED BY NIXON AT 2023-09-13 07:59 AM | FLAG:

There's a price to pay when the energy production expansion is heavily invested in wind generation without enough gas generated backup. It's worth the trade off that sometimes the wind doesn't blow as fast as is needed.

You're right stunod. California has a $55 Billion surplus

#6 | POSTED BY TONYROMA AT 2023-09-13 08:04 AM | FLAG:

Had. Had a surplus. They spent it.

#21 Donner, that's your confirmation bias. You have to use the adjusted poverty metric, the Obama admin implemented it, because the original metric does not include housing costs. California poverty goes up with its property values. California homeless are locals that lost their homes, not migrants from other states.

When snoof talks about gains to the top, California is the avatar of it.

Like Austin homeless. It's mostly people from Austin priced out. Houston homeless will go up since property values doubled since Covid but Houston has a best in the nation program to rehouse people.

And poverty is not a national phenomenon to address. It's a local housing price issue. It can only be fixed by aggressive offenses against anti growth politics.

No it wouldn't. The housing supply is constrained by politics and geography. Inflating wages means general inflation which means higher interest rates and slower housing builds, reduced ability for those on fixed income to maintain their existing homes, reduced savings value for people trying to get in homes, etc. Poverty is not solved through inflation and the negative effects of it amplify the problems.

Cali minimum wage is more than double the fed minimum wage to begin with. If you say "raise the wages", then what should it be for California? What's the # that can get you a home, without causing inflation that prevents you from getting a home?

I think ------- to productivity is a nonsense metric. 40 years ago a car dealership's parts inventory management system was 10 people in a room with index cards. Now it's a table in a db. Based on productivity he or she is doing the job of 10 people.

You can't inflate your way out of a limited housing supply. The only saving grace for metros like Houston is radial expansion over what used to be rice paddies so it's not geographically constrained.

When they had a surplus, it was re-invested in the state. That's what governments are supposed to do.
It sounds like the state is being run responsibly.

#11 | POSTED BY SYCOPHANT AT 2023-09-13 11:22 AM | FLAG:

We'll have to agree to disagree that living paycheck to paycheck is responsible behavior.