Letter from the President

Greetings,

The addition of the new AT&T Performing Arts Center to the Dallas Art District has made a statement about Dallas’ quality of life that is still reverberating throughout the United States and throughout the international arts community.

Just as DFW International Airport arrived just at the right time for the explosive growth of international trade and travel, so too our newest addition exclaims that Dallas, and the region, is ready for our next stage of growth with a greatly enhanced cultural milieu.

Article after article, from coast to coast and internationally, view Texas and this region as a great place to do business. Our low cost tax structure, our great diversity in population and diversity in the business sector has kept the area from what an Associated Press item recently called a “boom-then-doom trend.”

One service the Dallas Regional Chamber provides on a regular basis is to interact with the press, which is now following the Texas model and seeking comment about why we are so well positioned. This interaction helps us highlight the strengths of Dallas and with an AP story reaching literally hundreds of newspapers around the country.It allows us to comment about why, as the article says, “The fast-growing areas that have been resilient tend to have large, diversified economies.

“When one industry goes down, it doesn’t just take down the whole region. We’re able to absorb the hit much better,” quoting the Dallas Regional Chamber’s vice president of business information and research, Duane Dankesreiter.

Whether it is low taxes, no personal income tax, the ease of doing business including reasonable costs of real estate and housing, and sound governmental policies which welcome business rather than make it hard on the job provider -- all of these are working in our favor.

A Los Angeles Times article about the state of California’s problemsconcerning the middle class getting less for its higher tax dollars, as urban futurist expert Joel Kotkin says, “Today, you go to Texas, the roads are no worse, the public schools are not great but are better than or equal to our; and their universities are good. The bargain between California’s government and the middle class is constantly being renegotiated to the disadvantage of the middle class.”

On the East Coast, the New York Post reports an economic study which shows “New Yorkers are fleeing the state and city in alarming numbers—and costing a fortune in lost tax dollars.” Why? The Manhattan Institute study blames the state’s high cost of living and high taxes. The response to few tax dollars has been to propose higher taxes.

It is more than fair to say that we are not perfect here in Dallas and in Texas. We cannot claim that our social services are ideal or that we can continue to enjoy a better life by ignoring the fact that increasing transportation pathways actually costs real dollars and is in critical need of a solution.

How we deal with transportation needs, their costs and all of the elements that will frame that debate are issues that are bearing down on us and which we must address as we continue to add new people and businesses to the city and region.

You will be hearing much more about this in the year ahead.

Sincerely,



Amb. James C. Oberwetter, President
Dallas Regional Chamber