Texas Declared America’s Top State for Business

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

R i c k P e r r y

For Immediate Distribution Governor’s Press Office: 512-463-1826
July 13, 2010 Allison Castle: Allison.castle@governor.state.tx.us

News Release Katherine Cesinger: kcesinger@governor.state.tx.us

Texas Declared America’s Top State for Business

CNBC Study Ranks Texas as No. 1 Business Climate in the Nation

AUSTIN – Texas is America’s Top State for Business, according to a CNBC study that scored each state based on 40 different measures of competitiveness.

“This designation reinforces the fact that the Lone Star State is the best state in the nation to live, work and raise a family thanks to our low taxes, reasonable and predictable regulations and skilled workforce,” Gov. Perry said. “These policies have helped keep our economy comparatively strong through the national economic downturn, and will continue to make us globally competitive in the future.”

CNBC scored each state using publicly available data to determine the rankings. States received points based on ten broad categories including: cost of doing business, workforce, economy, education, quality of life, technology and innovation, transportation, cost of living, business friendliness, and access to capital.

This ranking adds to the growing list of accolades for Texas’ business climate. No other state is home to more Fortune 500 companies, and Texas is the nation’s leading exporting state for the eighth year in a row. Additionally, Texas was recently named the “Best State to Do Business” by CEO Magazine for the sixth year in a row, and six of Texas’ metro areas were listed as “America’s Recovery Capitals” by Forbes and Moody’s Economy.

Texas created more private sector jobs than any other state in the nation over the last 10 years. Additionally, Texas’ unemployment rate remained steady at 8.3 percent in May, well below the national average.

The complete CNBC study is available on www.topstatesforbusiness.cnbc.com.

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Best and Worst States for Business 2010
April 29, 2010

Economic DevelopmentElection 2010Fiscal ConservativeNational IssuesCampaign Update
Chief Executive Magazine

More than 600 CEOs rated states on a wide range of criteria from taxation and regulation to workforce quality and living environment, in our sixth annual special report.

In Chief Executive’s annual survey of best and worst states for business, conducted in late January of this year, 651 CEOs across the U.S. again gave Texas top honors, closely followed by North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. They gave the booby prize for worst state to California, with New York, Michigan, New Jersey and Massachusetts filling out the bottom five-a line-up virtually unchanged from last year. Florida and Georgia each dropped three places in the ranking, but remain in the top 10. Utah jumped six positions this year to sneak into the top 10 at No. 9.

The business leaders were asked to draw upon their direct experience to rate each state in three general categories: taxation and regulation, quality of workforce and living environment. Within each category respondents graded states in five subcategories, as well as ranking each in terms of its importance to the respondent and how individual states measure up (Click here to see How CEOs Grade the States chart).

For example, Texas fares competitively with Nevada and Delaware in terms of taxation and regulatory environment, but scored best overall, in no small measure because of the perception that its government’s attitude to business is ideal. Runner-up North Carolina edged Texas slightly in its living environment, but scored somewhat below the Lone Star state in terms of government attitude to business and work ethic, which is a sine qua non for the business leaders. (Click here to see the chart) After employee work ethic, CEOs most highly prize lower tax rates and perceived attitudes toward business, followed by living environment considerations, such as real estate costs and education.

“Texas is pro-business with reasonable regulations,” one CEO respondent remarked, “while California is anti-business with anti-business regulations.” Another commented, “California is terrible. Even when we’ve paid their high taxes in full, they still treat every conversation as adversarial. It’s the most difficult state in the nation. We have actually walked away from business rather than deal with the government in Sacramento.”

“The leadership of California has done everything in its power to kill manufacturing jobs in this state,” observed another CEO. “As I stated at our annual meeting, if we could grow our crops in Reno, we’d move our plants tomorrow.”

How is it that the nation’s most populous state at 37 million, one that is the world’s eighth-largest economy and the country’s richest and most diverse agricultural producer, a state that had the fastest growth rate in the 1950s and 1960s during the tenures of Democratic Governor Pat Brown and Republican Governors Earl Warren and Ronald Reagan, should become the Venezuela of North America?

Californians pay among the highest income and sales taxes in the nation, the former exceeding 10 percent in the top brackets. Unemployment statewide is over 12.2 percent, higher than the national average. State politics seems consumed with how to divide a shrinking pie rather than how to expand it. Against national trend, union density is climbing from 16.1 percent of workers in 1998 to 17.8 percent in 2002. Organized labor has more political influence in California than in most other states. In addition, unfunded pension and health care liabilities for state workers top $500 billion and the annual pension contribution has climbed from $320 million to $7.3 billion in less than a decade. When state employees reach critical mass, they tend to become a permanent lobby for continual growth in government.

Bill Dormandy, CEO of San Francisco medical device maker ITC, summed it up: “California has a good living environment but is unfavorable to business and the state taxes are not survivable. Nevada and Virginia are encouraging business to move to their states with lower tax rates and less regulatory demands.”

Lone Star Leader

By contrast, Texas, the second-most populous state and the world’s 12th largest economy, is where 70 percent of all new U.S. jobs have been created since 2008. Unsurprisingly, it scores high in all the areas CEOs value most. “You feel like state government understands the value of business and industry to create jobs and growth,” observed one CEO. Its tax credits and incentives to business choosing to locate or expand are among the most aggressive. The Texas Enterprise Fund is by far the largest deal-closing fund of any state, with grants totaling $377 million disbursed in 2008.

The results of this survey may point the way.

http://www.chiefexecutive.net/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?...

January brought job gains to Texas, but strong recovery may take more time

March 6, 2010
By Brendan Case / The Dallas Morning News

Texas employers expanded payrolls by 30,300 jobs in January, the third time in the last four months the state has gained jobs, according to preliminary information released Friday by the Texas Workforce Commission.

Employers added more net jobs in January than in any month since February 2008. But the figure is subject to revision, and analysts cautioned that a strong job market turnaround is probably some ways off.

Read more

Gov. Perry Announces $1.8 Million TETF Investment in 1st Detect Corp.

March 3, 2010
Office of the Governor

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today announced that the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF) is investing $1.8 million in 1st Detect Corp. for the development and commercialization of a portable mass spectrometer that detects residues and vapors from harmful substances.

“Now more than ever, companies are looking to Texas as the best state in the nation to foster and grow innovative technologies, thanks to our skilled and educated workforce and investments from the TETF,” Gov. Perry said. “This investment in 1st Detect will help make the detection of harmful substances more accurate and cost efficient, and will be an important tool for a variety of industries, from security to medicine.”

Read more

Short-Term Economic Forecast for Texas Metros and Regions

February, 2010
The Perryman Report & Texas Letter

Texas’ metro areas account for 9 of 10 residents and 7 of 10 jobs. Economic growth will continue to be concentrated in these population centers, with the five largest metro areas accounting for over 75% of Texas’ expected population expansion and more than 70% of projected job gains during the period from 2009 to 2014. This Special Report includes key results from The Perryman Group’s latest forecast for the state’s 25 metro areas and regions.

Read more