Business Facilities -November 2008

BUSINESS REPORT Texas By Jenny Vickers The Lone Star State is Flexing its Muscles Texas is bucking the economic trends and maintaining strong growth in income and employment. A lthough the nation’s economy has experienced a recent slowdown, the Texas economy continues to rev up. With the 12th largest economy in the world (if it were considered a nation), Texas now leads the U.S. in job creation, gross state product, low unemployment rate, and foreign direct investment. Part of the Lone Star State’s success stems from proactive government policies and incentives, low taxes, reasonable regulations, solid infrastructure, and good quality of life. In September, Texas Governor Rick Perry and Dr. Arthur Laffer unveiled an economic study comparing two of the nation’s economic heavyweights: Texas and California. According to the study, Texas has a superior economic climate with growth in income, wealth, and employment projected to strengthen relative to California and the nation as a whole. In July, CNBC announced that Texas is America’s Top State for Business and Chief Executive Officer Magazine recently named Texas the Best State to Do Business for the third year in a row. In addition to Texas’ strong economy, several government incentives have been proactive in making Texas the go-to state for a myriad of industries including aerospace and defense; advanced technologies and manufacturing; biotechnology and life sciences; energy, information and computer technology; and petroleum refining and chemical products. Some of the most recent significant new relocation and expansion projects include Alorica, Inc. (600 jobs), Caterpillar Inc. (140 jobs), Subsea7 (180 jobs), and Shintech (150 jobs). Some of the largest expansion and investment projects in 2008 were awarded Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) monies, including HelioVolt Corp. of Austin ($62 million), Santana Textiles ($170 million), Martifer Energy Systems LLC ($40 million), and United States Bowling Congress ($13 million). Said to be one of the most competitive tools Texas has, TEF is used to recruit new businesses and also assist them with expansions within the state. Since TEF’s creation in 2003, it has helped close the deal on projects generating more than 51,000 new jobs and $13.7 billion in capital investment. TEXAS FAST FACTS Population (2007): 23,904,380 Largest Cities (2006): Houston (2,085,737), San Antonio (1,274,607), Dallas (1,224,397), Austin (705,611), Fort Worth (638,102) Targeted Industries: aerospace and defense; advanced technologies and manufacturing; biotechnology and life sciences; energy, information and computer technology; and petroleum refining and chemical products Key Incentives: The Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund TEXAS’ ECONOMIC STRENGTHS • Texas has created 1.2 million net new jobs during the past five years. • In the past year, nearly half of all jobs created in the U.S. were created in Texas. • Over the last 12 months, Texas accounted for 45 percent of entire job gains for all states. • The state’s unemployment rate has been at or below the national rate for 20 consecutive months. • In 2008, Texas’ gross state product grew by 2.9 percent, versus a 2.7 percent increase for the national economy. • Texas exports more goods than any other state—in 2007, state exports rose to about $168 billion, an increase of 11.45 percent from the previous year. BUSINESS FACILITIES 29

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Business Facilities -November 2008 Contents First Word Sanpshots Corporate Moves: Utah Kodak Develops a Megasite in Upstate New York Anatomy of a Deal: Studley Finds a New Space for Myspace Metro Spotlight: Johnson City, TN A Renaissance of Growth in Medical Plastics The Lone Star State Flexes Its Muscles Asia: A Portrait of Growth Sky's the Limit for High-tech in Arizona Corporate Moves: Pennsylvania Ohio Leads the Way Alabama's Tide Rolls to the Future IEDC 2008 Award Winners Advertiser Index Introducing Navigator Livexchange

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