According to rankings in America’s Top States for Business by CNBC, Texas was bumped from the fourth to the fifth-best state for business.
Home to more than fifty Fortune 500 companies and offering serious competitive advantages like no corporate or personal income taxes, Texas was the best state for businesses in the nation, but we have slowly declined since 2018.
Why is this happening? While Texas stands strong with its second-strongest workforce and eighth-strongest economy, the state is ranked 34th for business-friendliness and ranked second worst in the nation (49th) for life, health, and inclusion. That means we received the second lowest rating in an area that, “rate(s) the states on livability factors like per capita crime rates and environmental quality.”
Crime and public safety have a clear and serious impact on business and the economy, and in our case, a seriously negative one.
The reason Texas is beginning to wane in favorability is because of what is happening in our cities; it’s because of the massive decline in public safety taking place right here in Dallas. Keep Dallas Safe has been covering this decline for months, explaining that as we become less safe and less hospitable to businesses and their employees, the economic prosperity of the heart of Texas will continue to deteriorate.
Dallas is on track to become something unrecognizable to the good people who have resided here for years. When residents are being gunned down behind their local ice-skating rink, Dallas has a serious public safety issue. Dallas County has the 3rd most catalytic converter thefts in Texas and motor vehicle theft is skyrocketing, up 21.7% from last year. People are getting shot in broad daylight in Dallas, and there is nothing being done by our city’s elected officials to curtail the violence.
Homelessness is running grossly unchecked by code enforcement, and vagrants have become increasingly violent, sending residents to the hospital with serious injuries. Dallas is at a tipping point: we either get back to being the business-friendly powerhouse that generations of Dallasites have worked so hard to become, or we degrade into the next Chicago or Portland where criminality is a commonality, and a good economy hasn’t existed in years.
Our city council needs to get serious about maintaining public safety before it gets any worse, and supporting our police is a great start. We need more police officers. Our police department is currently operating with a 600-officer deficit and 871 more could retire with pension at any moment.
They cannot recruit more people if the city does not allocate more funds to the department to make that happen. Call your city representatives and tell them to prioritize public safety and support our officers. The economic well-being and living standards of Dallas residents will continue to decline if they keep neglecting to do their jobs and failing to keep Dallas safe. Residents must demand better before it’s too late.