[FROM THE DESK OF GLENN HEGAR] Texas: Where We Stand

Texans have always been a competitive bunch, and we love keeping score.

If you follow the news, you probably know Texas usually ranks at or near the top of all states for our business climate, or “business friendliness,” as it’s sometimes called.

Lots of businesses, publications and institutions across the nation produce rankings like these, comparing the states on all sorts of factors — finances, demographics, economic conditions and more. They can be useful for folks involved in economic development and business relocation — and for anyone who just wants to see how our state stacks up against the others.

But there’s never been a way to examine dozens of these various rankings in a single place … until now.

My office has produced a fascinating new online tool, the 50-State Scorecard, that allows you to see where Texas stands against other states on 26 different measures involving business climate, tax burdens, entrepreneurial activity, unemployment, population characteristics and more.

To the best of our knowledge, it’s the most comprehensive collection of state rankings ever assembled on the Web, with a clean and simple interactive design that’s easy to use.

This is just the latest addition to our transparency warehouse, which houses the nation’s largest selection of tools and data on state and local government finances. There’s nothing else quite like it — a one-stop shop for everything you need to know about how and where your tax money is spent.

I hope you’ll check out the Scorecard and our other transparency features. And please let us know if there are other measures you’d like the Scorecard to address.

As always, let us know how we’re doing via our customer service website, Twitter or Facebook.

Thank you for all you do for Texas, and God bless,

Glenn Hegar