Houston, unlike the rest of Texas, has a strong Louisiana influence stretching back generations because of the shared oil and gas economy, and was enhanced by immigration and outflow from New Orleans by Katrina in 2005.
Hmm; apart from restaurants, I'm not sure many Houstonians would agree that Houston has "a strong Louisiana influence stretching back generations" — if anything we'd probably say it's the other way around (but then that might be just local boosterism).
As to Hurricane Katrina: We took in about 250K evacuees but only about 40K stayed permanently (which is a bunch, of course). I'd guess most of those were the sort who liked being here better, so they made lemonade out of the lemons that the storm forced upon them. [0]
I think a lot of what folks see as a "Louisiana influence" in Houston is mostly "Gulf Coast TX" vs the rest of Texas.
It's not that it's a Louisiana influence, it's that we're all on the gulf coast and all have a lot in common. (Not with New Orleans so much, but certainly with Lake Charles/etc.)
That somehow gets misnamed as a "Louisiana influence", when really it's just the region we're in.
Sales tax and property tax.
> What is the difference between their government and California's?
Houstonian* here — Texas doesn't provide nearly the level of social services.
* I saw a post recently where someone said "I'm from Houston, not from Texas."