New Toyota HQ Will Bring Jobs To Plano
PLANO (CBSDFW.COM) - The world's larges automaker is preparing to move its North American corporate headquarters to North Texas, and bring thousands of jobs with it.
Toyota already employs 6,000 people with its San Antonio truck plant. Monday it announced it's moving its corporate operations, as well as some manufacturing and sales and marketing offices -- to Plano, where it will employ as many as 4,000 more.
The move comes mostly at the expense of Toyota's current corporate home in Torrance, California.
"A lot of companies are bailing out of California," says Collin College professor of economics Mike Cohick. High taxes and especially the cost of living are to blame, he believes. "It's hard to get recruits in someplace where the cost of living is so high the recruit can't afford to live there."
Tom Branch, of the Collin County Association of realtors, says no matter how many Toyota workers relocate to Texas, they'll give the area a boost. "It always has a positive impact on the economy. "They say that each house we sell has a fifty-fold impact on the local economy because these people not only buy a house they spend their money here, they're paying taxes here."
Plano Mayor Harry LaRosiliere extolled his city's virtues as the reason it attracts corporate headquarters. "Our city services, our schools, our transportation opportunities, the mobility, the infrastructure... ultimately the reason why Toyota chose to make this their home."
He wouldn't talk about incentives, but Governor Rick Perry did. The Governor has been recruiting businesses in California and a handful of other states; he confirms Texas invested $40-million dollars through the Texas Enterprise Fund. He expects Toyota to invest $300- million more.
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