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Governor to sign three laws aimed at making Texas a hub for stock exchanges
Summary
At an Economic Development Week event, the governor said he will sign three measures — including Senate Bill 29 and Senate Bill 1058 and a constitutional amendment via House Joint Resolution 4 — intended to protect the business judgment rule, exempt certain exchanges from franchise taxes, and bar stock-transaction taxes to encourage exchanges and headquarters relocations to Texas.
The governor said he will sign three laws intended to make Texas a national center for stock exchanges and corporate registrations, and he framed the moves as reinforcing the state’s long-standing pro-business climate.
He described Senate Bill 29 as codifying the business judgment rule so that "sound business judgments made in the best interest of shareholders will not be second guessed by courts," and said the law would limit opportunistic actions by small shareholders. He said Senate Bill 1058 will "exempt stock exchanges operating in Texas" from certain franchise tax liabilities, explicitly naming Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange along with the Texas Stock Exchange. He also said the legislature will add to an ongoing constitutional amendment effort — House Joint Resolution 4 — to prohibit stock-exchange-transaction and occupation taxes and to further protect retirement accounts.
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick called Senate Bill 29 ‘‘straightforward’’ and said it was important to making a Texas stock exchange a reality. Jim Lee, identified in the event as CEO of the Texas Stock Exchange, said, "This legislation will incentivize even more businesses now to move their registrations, perhaps move their listings, and ultimately to move their headquarters to Texas." Glenn Hammer of the Texas Association of Business said the measures "will absolutely keep Texas as the best place in the nation for jobs and to invest."
Speakers framed the bills as part of a broader push to attract headquarters and listings to Texas: the governor linked the measures to prior-session business courts that he said increase predictability for business litigation, and advocates argued the combination of statutory protections and tax changes would steer incorporations and listings away from states like Delaware and New York.
Reporters asked how other states were responding. The governor said Delaware was "grasping at straws" and portrayed Texas as offering greater legal stability and predictability for businesses. Those comments reflect speakers' interpretations of court trends and are presented here as claims made during the event.
The event closed with Jim Lee saying, "Through the SEC works as planned, we should put our first trades up in the February next year," indicating an expected early trading timeline if federal approvals and regulatory processes proceed.
What happens next: the governor said he will sign the three measures; the articles and measures cited by speakers — Senate Bill 29, Senate Bill 1058 and House Joint Resolution 4 — remain subject to the formal enactment and any required administrative or federal review before exchanges begin trading in Texas.
