Which Governors are Opening States? [Opinion]

The 10th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States empowers our governors. From the outset of the coronavirus the nation’s Governors have exercised their authority in various ways.

Governors in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and North Dakota initially supported  the stay at home orders. The Governors of New York, New Jersey, California, and Michigan also followed suit and shut down their states.

The difference now has Texas, Tennessee, Florida, and North Dakota governors opening up their states to get their economy headed towards recovery.

New York, California, New Jersey and Michigan are still in more of a lock down mode to put it politely. Some call that responsible. Others say they simply want to destroy our economy to defeat the President in November.

The job creators who own businesses in the Blue States are calling the governors and mayors of Red  States. They are talking business relocation. These calls are reportedly coming from big, medium, and small businesses. Too soon to know if these will be wake-up calls for Blue State governors.

Why are these job creators calling political leaders on every level?  Because they are looking at relocating their businesses to states that are open for business.

Over the weeks ahead we will take a hard look at other states that have begun to open up their economies and let residents return to work. Part of that appeal for states, like Texas or Tennessee, is the rate income taxes are levied.

Neither state has a state income tax! That is a major savings for the workforce. New York and California have high income taxes.

Ten states have income taxes from 7.65% up to the 13.3% charged in California.

Eight states have no income tax.  Texas and Tennessee are two of the states that don’t have income taxes.

It is no surprise that Governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Bill Lee of Tennessee had booming economies pre-pandemic. To be fair, New York and California also had great economies the past three years, too.

Post-pandemic, if we can use the phrase, this is where the states head different directions. Texas and Tennessee are opening up and doing so sooner than either the Golden State or the Empire State.

Williamson County Tennessee Mayor Rogers Anderson is proud of the progress his county has made in business attraction and retention. In fact the medium household income in this county has risen every year and in 2017 sat at $103,000  and the county population rate has grown almost 4 percent. He’s bullish on his home state and his county.

Where states like Texas and Tennessee succeed in business attraction, retention, and job growth is their Governors and local governments work together to set programs and polices that are business- and resident-friendly. It just costs less to do business in these two states. Entitlement, permits,  fees, and approvals are also much faster and cost much less.

They are investing in family-friendly communities with amenities for families and children. Texas and Tennessee are producing better ranking public schools. Is California losing it’s appeal to business? Elon Musk, of Tesla and SpaceX fame, is apparently at his wits end with the Golden State. Is the Empire State in the same boat? Maybe.

New Yorkers are amazing people. They have taken the terror attacks of 9-11-2001 and bounced back big. California rebounded when the dot.com bubble burst. Both states bounced back from the Great Recession of 2008 and have had amazing economies over the past three three years.

While Texas and Tennessee are moving to open their economies with caution, New York and California are moving much more cautiously. Each of the four states have pandemic guidelines and recommendations in place.

America, her 50 states, the District of Columbia, and its four territories will be back! The speed of the recovery is not in the hands of President Trump. Sure, he can encourage and cheerlead.  He’s worked with Congress on assistance packages for our unemployed and our businesses. However, our  10th Amendment and some our national media place our recovery squarely in the hands of the governors.