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Seems like there is a multi-industry push to move into Texas; came across a video the other day of Matthew McConaughey & Woody Harrelson (and other big name act

Seems like there is a multi-industry push to move into Texas; came across a video the other day of Matthew McConaughey & Woody Harrelson (and other big name actors) reprising their True Detective role calling for the Texas legislature to increase incentives that bring Hollywood productions over to Texas. [1] https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/matthew-mcconaughey-woody-harrelson-true-detective-texas-based-productions-1235250668/ https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/matthew... [2] https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/matthew-mcconaughey-woody-harrelson-true-detective-true-to-texas-ad-1236290018/ https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/matthew-mcconaughey-woody-h...

hnthrow90348765 2y ago
Why TF does everyone want to be in Texas heat or not be able to go outside?
- tokioyoyo 2y ago
  Engineers don’t seem to be taking the bait, and people are very reluctant to move away from basically the most perfect weather in the entire world almost year round.
  - darth_avocado 2y ago
    When industries move away, taxes do as well. When the taxes go down, services and property values go down. Engineers may not want to give up perfect weather, but they still want to be employed, have their properties not depreciate and want good schools.
    - lesuorac 2y ago
      Eh, when somebody quits Meta in Texas and gets hit with a Non-Compete they're move real fast back to CA.
    - tokioyoyo 2y ago
      Eh, people will still move to California to start a business. When it gets threatened enough, it'll cave and play ball with other states to get back into the game. Having an insane upper hand with the climate based desirability will help them to get back on track, in my opinion. Now, I don't live in CA, and wouldn't want to move for some other reasons, but I genuinely don't think there is a better climate than SF, LA, SD metro areas. Maybe Cape Town, but then again, different problems.
      - ryandrake 2y ago
        Various pundits have been really pushing this "People are leaving California in droves!" narrative, desperately hoping that it one day becomes true. They need it to be true in order to repudiate all the various political Californisms that they disagree with. The reality is that California's population declined less than 1% in one year out of the last 125 and stood approximately steady in one year. It increased the remaining 123 years.
        darth_avocado 2y ago
        Yet, tax revenues are dropping everywhere. At a state level and at local levels.
        tokioyoyo 2y ago
        You’re really underestimating how much people value the ability of just going outside at any point of the year without and physical annoyances. It’s hard to live anywhere else once you experience the life in that climate, and people won’t move out easy. Ok, I’m definitely overstating, and very biased, but still.
    - kelnos 2y ago
      Industries aren't really moving though. The state a company is incorporated is generally orthogonal to where that company puts their HQ or hires most of their workers.
- ceejayoz 2y ago
  They don't. They're currently incorporated in Delaware, but HQ is (and will remain, so far) in California. > The paperwork change would not relocate its corporate headquarters. A Meta spokesperson said that it does not plan on shifting its corporate headquarters out of Menlo Park, California, but declined to comment on reincorporation when contacted by Reuters.
- HDThoreaun 2y ago
  Cheap housing and permissive regulations
- asdasdsddd 2y ago
  Maybe because it doesn't take 20 years to get a permit to build a treehouse. [0] [0]: https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/austin-ten-times-housing-permits-18447478.php https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/austin-ten-times-housin...
- 1659447091 2y ago
  No state income tax. Very business friendly, especially for the Good Ol' Boys club.
  - kelnos 2y ago
    > No state income tax. Property taxes are quite high in TX though. Even a conservative government has to fund itself somehow.
    - HWR_14 2y ago
      Yes, but a billionaire has a very small percentage of their net worth in personal real estate.
- losvedir 2y ago
  One aspect that intrigues me is it's well positioned to take advantage of solar power. I think solar capacity is growing faster than any state and it's behind only California now? I live in Chicago and just got finished with a 10F degree week, and I was sitting there feeling bad about how much natural gas my house was burning to stay warm. There are plenty of weeks here, where I have to raise the temperature in the house 60F degrees, whereas the worst in Texas is probably only a difference of a few dozen, tops. On top of which, cooling like that is vastly more efficient than warming. Heat pumps are getting to be useable at these low temperatures, and somewhat more efficient than just burning the fuel, but not nearly as efficient at cooling from, say, 100 to 80. But the biggest difference is that when climate control needs are the highest here, we have the least sun: in the winter, at night. Whereas in Texas when the climate needs are the highest (in the summer, in the daytime), they have the most sun. There's something sort of pleasing about that to me. > Texas heat In other words, as someone who's a solar power optimist, dealing with Chicago cold, I feel like that's not such a drawback. Of course, somewhere sunny and comfortable like California might be best, but who can afford that.
  - htrp 2y ago
    In the cold, you can always put on more layers.... in the heat, you're basically sol
- jedberg 2y ago
  It's very libertarian. No taxes, few regulations. Some people die here and there from the lack of safety, but that's a sacrifice the government is willing to make.
  - zifpanachr23 2y ago
    This is a massive oversimplification. The taxes and regulations are simply handled at a lower level of government. If you've ever lived in a large Texas metro, you would know it's not the wild west it gets portrayed as. Lots of places that give off serious California NIMBY vibes and that are relatively expensive. The difference is that taxation and government services are typically handled via property tax and delivered locally instead of at the state level. California and Texas have a lot more in common than people who've only lived in one or the other think. Texas just happens to be growing very quickly and is in some ways more geopolitically important at the moment (energy and exports and semiconductors and finance), which (besides less business regulation) is a big reason for the outflow from Cali and other states to Texas.
- reaperducer 2y ago
  Why TF does everyone want to be in Texas heat or not be able to go outside? Northwest Texas is almost southeast Colorado. Try to think beyond the stereotypes.
- jimbob45 2y ago
  There are a lot of people in Texas and the biggest cities are quite close together. In fact, you can start in Dallas, drive down to Waco, drive down to Austin, drive down to San Antonio, and you've only driven four hours to do so. If ever there was untapped access to a huge workforce, it's in Texas. Even better, Houston actually has the lowest homelessness rate of any major US city[0] and access to water. People are really sleeping on Houston's future right now. [0]https://www.reddit.com/r/houston/comments/1dpg4he/did_you_know_houston_has_the_lowest_rate_of/ https://www.reddit.com/r/houston/comments/1dpg4he/did_you_kn...
kelnos 2y ago
Incorporating in Texas has nothing to do with having a big business presence in Texas. Meta is almost certainly keeping their HQ and most of their operations in CA (and they weren't even incorporated in CA in the first place).

hnthrow90348765 2y ago

Why TF does everyone want to be in Texas heat or not be able to go outside?

tokioyoyo 2y ago
Engineers don’t seem to be taking the bait, and people are very reluctant to move away from basically the most perfect weather in the entire world almost year round.
- darth_avocado 2y ago
  When industries move away, taxes do as well. When the taxes go down, services and property values go down. Engineers may not want to give up perfect weather, but they still want to be employed, have their properties not depreciate and want good schools.
  - lesuorac 2y ago
    Eh, when somebody quits Meta in Texas and gets hit with a Non-Compete they're move real fast back to CA.
  - tokioyoyo 2y ago
    Eh, people will still move to California to start a business. When it gets threatened enough, it'll cave and play ball with other states to get back into the game. Having an insane upper hand with the climate based desirability will help them to get back on track, in my opinion. Now, I don't live in CA, and wouldn't want to move for some other reasons, but I genuinely don't think there is a better climate than SF, LA, SD metro areas. Maybe Cape Town, but then again, different problems.
    - ryandrake 2y ago
      Various pundits have been really pushing this "People are leaving California in droves!" narrative, desperately hoping that it one day becomes true. They need it to be true in order to repudiate all the various political Californisms that they disagree with. The reality is that California's population declined less than 1% in one year out of the last 125 and stood approximately steady in one year. It increased the remaining 123 years.
      - darth_avocado 2y ago
        Yet, tax revenues are dropping everywhere. At a state level and at local levels.
        tokioyoyo 2y ago
        You’re really underestimating how much people value the ability of just going outside at any point of the year without and physical annoyances. It’s hard to live anywhere else once you experience the life in that climate, and people won’t move out easy. Ok, I’m definitely overstating, and very biased, but still.
  - kelnos 2y ago
    Industries aren't really moving though. The state a company is incorporated is generally orthogonal to where that company puts their HQ or hires most of their workers.
ceejayoz 2y ago
They don't. They're currently incorporated in Delaware, but HQ is (and will remain, so far) in California. > The paperwork change would not relocate its corporate headquarters. A Meta spokesperson said that it does not plan on shifting its corporate headquarters out of Menlo Park, California, but declined to comment on reincorporation when contacted by Reuters.
HDThoreaun 2y ago
Cheap housing and permissive regulations
asdasdsddd 2y ago
Maybe because it doesn't take 20 years to get a permit to build a treehouse. [0] [0]: https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/austin-ten-times-housing-permits-18447478.php https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/austin-ten-times-housin...
1659447091 2y ago
No state income tax. Very business friendly, especially for the Good Ol' Boys club.
- kelnos 2y ago
  > No state income tax. Property taxes are quite high in TX though. Even a conservative government has to fund itself somehow.
  - HWR_14 2y ago
    Yes, but a billionaire has a very small percentage of their net worth in personal real estate.
losvedir 2y ago
One aspect that intrigues me is it's well positioned to take advantage of solar power. I think solar capacity is growing faster than any state and it's behind only California now? I live in Chicago and just got finished with a 10F degree week, and I was sitting there feeling bad about how much natural gas my house was burning to stay warm. There are plenty of weeks here, where I have to raise the temperature in the house 60F degrees, whereas the worst in Texas is probably only a difference of a few dozen, tops. On top of which, cooling like that is vastly more efficient than warming. Heat pumps are getting to be useable at these low temperatures, and somewhat more efficient than just burning the fuel, but not nearly as efficient at cooling from, say, 100 to 80. But the biggest difference is that when climate control needs are the highest here, we have the least sun: in the winter, at night. Whereas in Texas when the climate needs are the highest (in the summer, in the daytime), they have the most sun. There's something sort of pleasing about that to me. > Texas heat In other words, as someone who's a solar power optimist, dealing with Chicago cold, I feel like that's not such a drawback. Of course, somewhere sunny and comfortable like California might be best, but who can afford that.
- htrp 2y ago
  In the cold, you can always put on more layers.... in the heat, you're basically sol
jedberg 2y ago
It's very libertarian. No taxes, few regulations. Some people die here and there from the lack of safety, but that's a sacrifice the government is willing to make.
- zifpanachr23 2y ago
  This is a massive oversimplification. The taxes and regulations are simply handled at a lower level of government. If you've ever lived in a large Texas metro, you would know it's not the wild west it gets portrayed as. Lots of places that give off serious California NIMBY vibes and that are relatively expensive. The difference is that taxation and government services are typically handled via property tax and delivered locally instead of at the state level. California and Texas have a lot more in common than people who've only lived in one or the other think. Texas just happens to be growing very quickly and is in some ways more geopolitically important at the moment (energy and exports and semiconductors and finance), which (besides less business regulation) is a big reason for the outflow from Cali and other states to Texas.
reaperducer 2y ago
Why TF does everyone want to be in Texas heat or not be able to go outside? Northwest Texas is almost southeast Colorado. Try to think beyond the stereotypes.
jimbob45 2y ago
There are a lot of people in Texas and the biggest cities are quite close together. In fact, you can start in Dallas, drive down to Waco, drive down to Austin, drive down to San Antonio, and you've only driven four hours to do so. If ever there was untapped access to a huge workforce, it's in Texas. Even better, Houston actually has the lowest homelessness rate of any major US city[0] and access to water. People are really sleeping on Houston's future right now. [0]https://www.reddit.com/r/houston/comments/1dpg4he/did_you_know_houston_has_the_lowest_rate_of/ https://www.reddit.com/r/houston/comments/1dpg4he/did_you_kn...

kelnos 2y ago

Incorporating in Texas has nothing to do with having a big business presence in Texas. Meta is almost certainly keeping their HQ and most of their operations in CA (and they weren't even incorporated in CA in the first place).