Texas passes N.Y. for corporate headquarters BY DAVID KOENIG The Associated Press
DALLAS — Texas is king of the hill when it comes to corporate headquarters. The Lone Star State passed New York as home to the most big companies in the latest list compiled by Fortune magazine. Texas now boasts 58 headquarters, three more than New York, the previous No. 1, and California, with 52. Business experts say it’s a matter of simple economics — Texas attracts companies with its low taxes, affordable land and large labor force. “Cost is overwhelmingly the No. 1 driver,” said Albert W. Niemi Jr., dean of the business school at Southern Methodist University, who wrote his doctoral thesis about companies leaving the Northeast for the Sun Belt 30 years ago. Irving-based Exxon Mobil Corp. remained the biggest Texas-headquartered company by 2007 revenue, and No. 2 nationally, behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Exxon Mobil, however, was more profitable, earning $40.6 billion. Four of the largest six corporations in Texas last year were oil companies, but the state’s economy is more diverse than it was a generation ago. Other Texas companies on the magazine’s list include technology, such as Dell Inc., three of the nation’s biggest airlines, two of the biggest homebuilders, an insurer, a hospital company and the largest garbage hauler around. Texas has been attracting big companies from out of state for nearly three decades, including American Airlines in 1979. Exxon — before it bought Mobil — and J.C. Penney Co. arrived in the following decade. All three came from New York. In recent years, Fortune 500 companies such as Tenet Healthcare Corp. and — just last year — engineering and construction company Fluor Corp. moved in from California. The reverse Gold Rush from California to Texas has concerned West Coast officials for years. In 2004, consultant Bain & Co. surveyed big companies for a California business group and found that half planned to shift jobs out of state or at least stop expanding in California because of high costs, including taxes. Of that group, 27 percent said they would go to Texas, more than any other state. Lyssa Jenkens, chief economist for the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce, said there is a snowball effect — once a few big companies move in, others follow.
Funny isn't it, to think that their taxes are low, they are business friendly AND everyone can carry a gun!! Everything that NYS is against. And if you meet a Texan, they are very proud to be one. New Yorkers tend to either be obnoxious or embarrassed to say where they are from. I know that when I am telling someone where I am from I always make a point of saying that I live in upstate new york. But then they think you are a redneck!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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