Some weeks back, Elon Musk threatened to move at least some Tesla manufacturing operations to Texas, having lost patience with the California COVID program. He's reported to be well advanced in negotiations for a site in Austin that might add 5,000 local jobs. As usual, there's a bidding war, perhaps pitting Austin against Tulsa, Oklahoma, for tax concessions.
I'm not generally a big fan of buying business with personalized tax breaks, but this article mentioned a concession that might make the usual tawdry bargain worth it: Musk is devoted to the "direct sale" model, while Texas is still wed to the dealer-protection racket. Musk would demand an exemption from that law, if not an outright appeal. Get that camel's nose right under the tent, I say, and start shoving.
Also, it would be fun to watch Austin progressives try to reconcile their conflicting views about Musk--job creator! Gay! Hostility to COVID submission! Non-approved social views! Rich guy!--not to mention their approval of "clean" cars and suspicion of factories.
I have good friends with deep family roots in the small farming community of Taylor, and Musk has a lock on a large tract of land in nearby Hutto. It has been a well-known 'secret' for some time in that area, NE of Austin. There are already a large number of charging stations scattered around the area. The site itself (a land plat) appeared indirectly as a reference on the Tesla site for a while, don't know if it's been removed or not. I'd give it a better-than-even chance of happening.
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