Abbott: ‘Top-notch’ Texas workers lured Amazon

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday that he was recently with Amazon executives at a ribbon-cutting and asked them, “Why is it that you keep coming to Texas?”

He expected them to say low taxes, low regulatory environment, high quality of life and a low cost of living. Instead, he said during an appearance Friday on cable news channel CNBC, the Amazon representatives said the reason is the state’s “top-notch workforce.”

Amazon disclosed on Thursday two Texas cities, Austin and Dallas, are among the 20 cities and regions still being considered for its “HQ2” second headquarters project. Amazon says it plans to build a second headquarters that will include an investment of $5 billion and as many as 50,000 jobs for the winning city.

Abbott avoided answering directly a question from host Carl Quintanilla about whether he would favor Austin or Dallas in the Amazon HQ2 race.

“Your viewers know that CNBC consistently puts Texas on your list of best states for doing business for low taxes ... but here’s what you don’t know,” Abbott said. The state’s universities are “cranking out one of the topnotch workforces in America.”

Abbott said winning the HQ2 project would be “transformative” for Texas, but said the state also offers Amazon a seamless fit with the technology workers already here. Apple already has its second-largest campus in Austin, where it employs about 6,000 workers. Meanwhile, Abbott said, Dallas has more tech workers than Austin and is generating new job growth of more than 100,000 last year and could handle Amazon’s demand for as many as 50,000 workers in 10 years for its HQ2.

Asked about the status of the