Bucco hits Democrats on business policy as ExxonMobil reincorporates in Texas

A top state Senate Republican is criticizing Democrats for “anti-business” policies that he believes led to oil giant ExxonMobil choosing to redomicile in Texas. 

The oil giant is reincorporating in Texas, where the company is headquartered and where most of the company’s U.S. operations are conducted. ExxonMobil’s shareholders approved the move Wednesday. 

But Senate Minority Leader Anthony M. Bucco is criticizing state Democrats for ignoring “warning signs” that the state has become inhospitable to major businesses.

“ExxonMobil’s decision to leave New Jersey for Texas should be a wake-up call for every elected official in Trenton,” Bucco said. “After more than a century tied to our state, one of the world’s largest companies is telling New Jersey what many others have already made clear: the business climate has become too expensive, overregulated, and hostile to employers.”

ExxonMobil had been headquartered in Spring, Texas, since 1989, but the company had remained incorporated in New Jersey. ExxonMobil leaders said reincorporating in Texas makes logistical sense for the company, and said Texas’s “legal and regulatory environment,” including a special court tasked with resolving complex business disputes, influenced the move.

“Over the past several years, Texas has made a noticeable effort to embrace the business community. In doing so, it has created a policy and regulatory environment that can allow the company to maximize shareholder value,” said Darren Woods, ExxonMobil chairman and CEO. “Aligning our legal home with our operating home, in a state that understands our business and has a stake in the company’s success, is important.”

ExxonMobil is the latest major company to reincorporate in Texas, which last year passed legislation making the state’s legal system friendlier to corporations.

Bucco pointed to the closure of the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Newark and Johnson & Johnson’s decision to open a $1 billion facility in Pennsylvania as evidence of New Jersey’s business-hostile system. 

“New Jersey already has some of the highest business taxes in the nation, yet Democrats keep doubling down on policies that make it harder to operate here,” Bucco said. “Families and workers ultimately pay the price when companies leave, jobs disappear, and investment dries up.”