Texas Border Business
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Association of Business (TAB) President & CEO Glenn Hamer released the following statement after the Wall Street Journal reported that a group of individuals and investment firms are planning to launch the new Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) in light of continued corporate dissatisfaction with regulatory burdens at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq:
“We are encouraged but not surprised to see top financial services leaders recognize what we have known for years: Texas is quickly becoming an epicenter for the financial services industry. TAB fully supports the important effort to establish Texas as the home of the newest national stock exchange through creation of the Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE).
“As business leaders know, policy matters. This latest development is a testament to the strong pro-business policies passed by the Texas Legislature – under the leadership of Governor Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Patrick, and Speaker Phelan, as well as the sound financial management of Comptroller Hegar – that empower job creators to invest in our communities, employ members of our world-class workforce, and supercharge economic growth throughout the Lone Star State. As a result, corporations are increasingly fleeing to Texas, where they know they will be supported without having to grapple with high taxes and onerous regulations that impede growth and job creation.
“Texas is already the ‘headquarters of headquarters,’ with 52 Fortune 500 companies calling our state home, making us an ideal fit for the nation’s newest stock exchange to compete with the current duopoly of NYSE and Nasdaq. CEOs have continually named Texas the Best State for Business for the last two decades, while Site Selectors have consistently chosen Texas as the top state for new capital investment projects for 12 years and counting.
“The great news is that Texas’ pro-business environment is continuing to get even stronger – including through the recent creation of specialized business courts to streamline legal processes for business disputes, the passage of legislation to establish outcome-based community college funding to incentivize the growth our state’s outstanding workforce, and our rising status as home to more Tier 1 research universities to help supercharge our innovation economy. Meanwhile, Texas continues to dominate in exporting more goods and attracting more foreign direct investment than any other U.S. state while leading the nation in job creation, recently tripling the national average.
“TAB welcomes and encourages the creation of the TXSE, and applauds CEO James Lee for his leadership in convening investors to establish the new exchange. We look forward to supporting ongoing efforts to ensure Texas takes its rightful place as a national and global leader in financial services.”
