Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will meeting with stock exchange officials about relocating their New Jersey operations to Austin, the Dallas Morning News has reported.
Some exchanges, including Nasdaq, have threatened to exit New Jersey if Gov. Phil Murphy and legislative leaders move forward on a proposal to tax certain electronic stock trades.
Financial institutions have bumped up their political activity over a state-level proposal that would set a quarter-cent surcharge on people or entities that process more than 10,000 financial transactions in a given calendar year using infrastructure in New Jersey.
“If we can do it, I’d love to do it, but it is complicated,” The governor said on the New Jersey Globe Power Hour on 77 WABC in September. “And I would just say it’s more ‘if’ than ‘when,’ but we like the notion a lot and we’re working hard at it.”
Though the bill, sponsored by Assemblyman John McKeon (D-West Orange) and Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford), levies the tax on entities that process financial transactions, there are no provisions barring organizations from passing the costs along to buyers and sellers.
Since McKeon announced the proposal in July, financial institutions have threatened to leave the state over the tax. Similar taxes instituted federally in foreign nations have sometimes led capital markets to leave those countries.
Last month, a coalition of financial institutions that includes the two largest securities markets in the country wrote state’s congressional delegation earlier this week, warning that a proposed tax on financial transactions would push financial data centers out of New Jersey.