You can use taxes as a sword, but Texas has no personal income tax. A higher minimum wage would also help, but that has to go through the same people who don't want a personal income tax.
As more and more people move to Austin they will grow in political influence until they can vote out those people, institute a personal income tax, etc.
Texas amended the state constitution in 2019 to prohibit a personal income tax.
Also, the legislature of TX isn't structured in such a way that a large increase in Austin's population would enable sufficient political power to alter the constitution.
Finally, why would you want to move from California to Texas and then try to transform Texas into California? Just stay in California if that's what you want.
> As more and more people move to Austin they will grow in political influence until they can vote out those people, institute a personal income tax, etc.
Houstonian and UT grad here. We libtards have been saying that for as long as I can remember, and it never seems to come to pass. It's much like the old saying, [X] is five years in the future, and has been for the last 50 years.
Owned a home in Galveston only to have the property tax triple, but when I finally challenged it using a local realtor family friend's help it turned in to "okay how much do you want to pay". Its a game with rules that aren't exactly clear.