Texas Governor Rick Perry spoke at the grand opening of GEICO’s new claims operation in a west Houston suburb on April 3 with GEICO Chairman Tony Nicely and CEO Warren Buffet to celebrate the new 138,000 square-foot office. Perry stressed that Texas’ business-friendly policies are successful in attracting large employers–such as GEICO Insurance–to the state.
“For every company like GEICO that chooses to expand or relocate in our state, it means that more Texans are getting the opportunities they need to achieve their goals,” Perry told the crowd. “Today it is important to celebrate and to talk about the hundreds of jobs already created by this facility… the key to our state’s success is the opportunities created by employers like GEICO.”
So far, the GEICO office has hired 340 new associates. By 2018, the branch hopes to hire up to 700 additional employees.
Competition between states is what makes ultimately creates business-friendly environments, Perry reminded attendees.
“I think our country becomes stronger by allowing laboratories of innovation [states] to implement tax and regulatory policies, create a workforce, and compete against each other.”
Perry told Breitbart Texas that people from around the world are flocking to Texas due to the healthy job market.
“We’ve had 1,000 plus people moving into the state each day,” he claimed. “So even with the influx of people moving to Texas, we’ve been able to absorb them and to keep as many people employed as we can.”
Many Lone Star State residents are employed by Buffet’s various companies in the state. The investor said all of his Texas-based businesses continue to expand.
“The companies that Mr. Buffet invests in know that they can come here, expand, grow, and have a good economic future,” Perry said. He mentioned that one effect of Texas’ thriving economy is the variety of industries moving into the state. “The energy capital of the world is going to continue to be a place where energy-focused companies move, but companies like GEICO are also going to be expanding in the state.”
Breitbart Texas recently reported on the diversification of Texas’ growing industries. Karr Ingham, a Texas-based gas and oil economist, told Breitbart Texas, “The oil and gas industry has not gotten smaller–rather, the overall Texas economy has gotten bigger. The state economy is now a powerhouse. It is more than just an oil and gas economy; it is an industrial economy, a tech economy, a business economy, a manufacturing economy… Texas has a lot going for it.”
The growing variety of industries is no surprise to Perry.
“The key to our state’s success has been simple,” he said. “We have a regulatory climate that is fair and predictable, a legal system that doesn’t allow for over-suing, and we’ve continued to appropriately fund those good public schools.”
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