California: Wrong Lesson For Texas' Future

Having just returned from California, it's time to ask, is this our future? Basically, we see two roads for America, the Texas road or California road.

California taxes: High taxes, sales, income, gas, property are the highest in the country.
Texas taxes: Sales, gas, and property, and only latter considered to be too high.

California roads: Infrastructure deteriorating, congestion off the charts and not handling the numbers of people living there.
Texas roads: Progress, but similar problems that need to be addressed via a Texas type solution (more on this in another article herein.)

California water: A joke. There is no new reservoir since the drought, so fresh water (rain and snowmelt) is diverted to the Pacific, and only one desalination project built in San Diego and with the only real answer being rationing!
Texas water: A water plan has passed and is moving forward. Could Texas' flood prone areas divert water from the Gulf of Mexico to be piped to drought areas of Texas and to the West, like California, at a profit for the state? Worth looking into.

California welfare: Incredibly, almost one in three of all Americans on welfare live in California. Maybe because of the generous programs.
Texas welfare: One of the lowest and is obviously better, puts people to work.

So given the big differences, what are Texas' lessons for California? Lower taxes and simplify the tax code, school reform, gut overreaching regulations, long term infrastructure planning, which also involves the private sector, and public pension reform to control runaway pension costs.