Mayor Tom on Why Dallas is Good For Business and Why Mayor Tom's Good for Dallas

By Robert Wilonsky Mon., Aug. 30 2010 at 8:05 AM

Categories: City Hall

Kimberly Thorpe

Mayor Tom talks about sending iPods to corporate CEOs in this morning's interview.

This morning, Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert talks to something called The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel about why Dallas "is on a roll." It reads, in part, like a Mayor Tom best-of -- part personal history ("I was raised by a single mother in Arizona"), part success story ("Later, I left to run a succession of large companies at a very early age"), part corporate pitch ("Randall Stephenson, who is the CEO and president of AT&T ... can't understand why anybody would make a decision to move any place but Dallas"), part motivational speech ("We must educate our kids. Otherwise, the American dream will be denied to our children").

But it's also far more than just the greatest hits. Too many highlights from which to choose, so, closing eyes and picking one, let's go with ... this:

We recently visited here with a California company that may likely relocate to Dallas. They were impressed because Dallas and Texas have a stable tax environment. California certainly doesn't. We have no personal or corporate income tax. California does. Also, their human resources costs would be lower because housing and the overall cost of living is less here.

Another company, which is on the East Coast exploring a move, mentioned that the regulatory environment there was becoming too burdensome. Texas, on the other hand, has a great regulatory environment, and Dallas is a great place to do business.

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