Published: San Antonio Business Journal
Date: March 1, 2011

Site Selection Magazine named Texas the leading state for economic development.

Texas has won the 2010 Site Selection Governor’s Cup for having the most new and expanded corporate facilities tracked by Conway Data Inc.’s new plant database.

Conway Data publishes Site Selection magazine.

Texas had 424 economic development projects in 2010, more than 50 projects over its 2009 level. This was enough to dethrone Ohio, which won the magazine’s last four Governor’s Cups. Rounding out the top five were Ohio (376 projects), Louisiana (347 projects), Pennsylvania (337 projects) and Georgia (251 projects).

The new plant database tracks corporate locations that either involve a minimum capital investment of $1 million, create at least 50 jobs or add 20,000 square feet of new floor space. Hospitals, schools, retail and government-owned facilities are excluded from the database.

“It’s a clear challenge to improve the business climate in their states to put pressure on Texas to be more competitive,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry told Site Selection. “As well as Texas has done in the past and in 2010, we’re not going to be what we can be, or as strong as we can be, unless we have competition from other states.”

Texas is facing a $27 billion budget shortfall, which lawmakers are working to address during the current legislative session. Despite pending budget cuts, Perry is working to preserve funding levels to incentive programs such as the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.

Perry is also working to keep in place a small-business tax cut adopted in the 2009 session and to expand Texas’ tort reform program to include a loser-pays provision. The governor says that would discourage frivolous lawsuits.

“Gov. Perry has worked diligently in recent years to make his state pro-business, which is why Texas ranks as high as it does on matters of interest to site selectors,” says Mark Arend, editor in chief of Site Selection. “The Governor’s Cup is a clear example of this — and a critical one to the governors, because it objectively measures actual project activity.”