Emails about the contrasting attitudes toward Mexican immigration in Texas (relatively relaxed) and California (generally enraged) continue to arrive, and as usual I’m astonished at the insights of the people who read this happy Corner. Here’s yet another way of looking at the problem:

“Re: your posts in the Corner on immigration in California and Texas, one other thing that may contribute to the different attitudes in the two states is that there is a general perception of failed government here in California. There are arguments about the causes of this, but the fact is that except during the big boom years during the Reagan and Clinton years, the state has been consistently unable to pay its bills for about 30 years. (While our new Governor is doing a good job of getting the two parties to work together in Sacramento, the 15 year bond initiative that just passed is unfortunately symptomatic of this longstanding problem.) Sales and income taxes are extremely high in California, and the public fisc is nonetheless at the breaking point. Since so many things don’t work here, there is a perception among many Californians that the state can’t absorb additional immigrants, who are viewed by the public as consumers of government services rather than contributors of tax revenues.

“In contrast, the Texans I know think fairly highly of their government. It generally lives within its means, and there certainly isn’t the perception there that if some immigrants did end up on welfare (with lower welfare benefits than California, as has been pointed out) or hospitalized in a public hospital, that it would break the budget or that Texans would have to pay exhorbitant taxes. So Texans are able to assess the costs and benefits of immigration without succumbing to the state of ongoing budgetary panic and worry that is a constant here in California.

“I don’t think there’s a global explanation for the difference in attitudes, but this is surely part of it.”