JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon praised the business environment in Texas during a visit there this week, while blasting his home state of New York as unfriendly to companies.
The JPMorgan Chase
JPM,
CEO cited the Lone Star State’s lack of income tax and lighter regulatory regime as examples of why it continues to attract business.
“We like having a big market share here, and we like being here,” Dimon said on Tuesday, as reported by the Houston Business Journal.
A JPMorgan Chase spokesperson did not comment on media reports about Dimon’s Texas visit.
JPMorgan Chase now employs 30,000 people in Texas, while its New York head count has fallen by 6,000 to 29,000 in recent years.
Dimon said New York is more challenging for new business, citing the 2019 decision by Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
to scrap its plans to build a regional headquarters in Queens with 25,000 jobs after local officials objected.
“In New York City, the elected — not the mayor, not the governor, but a lot of the elected — they don’t want business,” Dimon said, as reported by Bloomberg. ”They didn’t let Amazon come in and build a whole new thing there.”
Amazon downsized its New York City plans to just 1,500 workers in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards and shifted its HQ2 regional-hub plan for Arlington, Va., at the time.
While Texas officials have pushed back on businesses for their policies toward fossil fuels or gun rights, many companies have still relocated to the state.
One fresh example is Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
Chief Executive Elon Musk, who plans to incorporate the company in Texas to avoid a Delaware Chancery Court decision that voided his $56 billion pay package. He’s also basing SpaceX in Texas as well.
In 2021, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law that requires companies signing contracts with state agencies to verify that they don’t discriminate against firearm makers.
Dimon’s remarks came as he talked to reporters while visiting Transmit Receive Labs, or TXRX Labs, a nonprofit that offers classes on 3D printers, lathes, water jets, plasma cutters and other computer numerically controlled (CNC) devices.
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