Playing guitar may win Martin O'Malley fans, but it can't change the horrible performance of the state since he rocked the governor's mansion.

Maryland ranked last in job creation over the past year according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In fact, it didn't create any jobs. It lost 20,000. This follows ranking after ranking that puts the state near the bottom of business friendliness and tax competitiveness. The weight of the evidence shows.

About 200,000 people are out of work in the state compared with 110,000 when the recession began.

To explain the lack of opportunity in Maryland, O'Malley relies on his old standby that the state is stronger than other places and "is better positioned for job growth because of the tough choices (aka raising taxes) we have made together."

The holes in his theory are turning into chasms the size of Texas, however.

Texas created 37 percent of all new jobs in the U.S. since the economy started to recover, and is one of a few that has more jobs than when the recession began at the end of 2007. The actual numbers translate to 265,300 new jobs of the 722,200 generated throughout the country.

Dallas Federal Reserve economist Pia Orrenius explains Texas' strong performance this way: "Whether energy prices are rising or not, Texas tends to do better than the nation in terms of job creation. ... The state attracts businesses and attracts people due to its relatively low tax burden and low cost of living."

Its recovery is so impressive a delegation of California leaders, including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, visited Austin in April to find out why so many of their state's businesses fled to the Lone Star State. "I don't see this as a partisan issue," said Newsom, who added that he was "sick and tired" of hearing about the mass exodus of jobs from his state to Texas.

A business relocation expert told The Wall Street Journal at the time that over 70 businesses had left California by mid-April of this year. Stand by for a future article on where Maryland businesses are going.

But it's clear the state is headed in the wrong direction. Anirban Basu, CEO of Sage Policy Group in Baltimore, said Maryland's poor job performance is due "largely to our actual business climate and our perceived business climate."

He added, "Houston is the nation's energy technology leader. It and Texas show how powerful the combination of business friendliness and technology commercialization can be."

Maryland legislators have a choice. They can continue to enact policies that make us more like tax-heavy and regulation-stifling California, or they can make it easier to create jobs and attract people.

As California's Newsom said, this should not be a partisan issue. It will be, however, if this one-party state keeps expecting the federal government and BRAC to generate wealth despite reams of evidence that strategy has failed. Maryland needs jobs to progress, not progressive theory and policies.