Texas Wealth on the Move...But to Where?

This from Forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com/)

Where America's Money Is Moving
Written by Jon Bruner (edited here for length)

Low taxes, warm sunshine and deep discounts on real estate. No wonder IRS data shows the wealthiest among us are headed south. Surprise: America's wealthy like warm weather and low taxes. That's the takeaway from IRS data, analyzed by Forbes, on moves between counties. We looked for counties that the rich are moving to in big numbers.

The dominance of the list by Florida and Texas--the former has eight of the top 20 counties, the latter four-- makes sense to Robert Shrum, manager of state affairs at the Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C., since neither state has an income tax. "If you're a high-income earner, then that, from a tax perspective, is going to be a driving decider if you're going to move to one of those two states," Shrum says.

After accounting for property taxes, Shrum's analysis shows that Texas has the fourth-lowest personal tax burden in the country, and Florida has the eighth lowest. Shrum also points to eight states that have targeted wealthy households with extra-high tax brackets: California, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Hawaii, Oregon, Connecticut and Wisconsin. Six of the top 10 counties the rich are fleeing are located in those states.

Here are Texas' entries in the Top 20, which all happen to be in the San Antonio region:

No. 4: Llano County, Texas, North of San Antonio
Arriving average income per capita: $44,324
Departing average income per capita: $22,541
Stationary household average income per capita: $26,201
Total arriving people: 1,192
Total departing people: 1,018
Top origin: Burnet County, Texas (312 people)

No. 6: Bandera County, Texas, West of San Antonio
Arriving average income per capita: $37,849
Departing average income per capita: $18,092
Stationary household average income per capita: $24,536
Total arriving people: 1,396
Total departing people: 1,192
Top origin: Bexar County, Texas (458 people)

No. 8: Kendall County, Texas, Northwest of San Antonio
Arriving average income per capita: $51,713
Departing average income per capita: $29,013
Stationary household average income per capita: $41,590
Total arriving people: 2,987
Total departing people: 1,711
Top origin: Bexar County, Texas (1,131 people)

No. 20: Gillespie County, Texas, Northwest of San Antonio
Arriving average income per capita: $35,890
Departing average income per capita: $22,572
Stationary household average income per capita: $30,350
Total arriving people: 1,232
Total departing people: 893
Top origin: Kerr County, Texas (170 people)

Taco Cabana Introduces Brisket Soft Tacos & Happy Hour Pricing

Local Tex-Mex favorite Taco Cabana is now offering brisket-filled fresh tortillas at its restaurants, officials announced this week with other changes. The San Antonio-based restaurant chain, which operates about 41 Houston area stores, will invest in a series of enhancements to its restaurants, adding new menu items and unveiling an advertising campaign.

Starting April 26, Taco Cabana put its first new item on the menu: a hickory-smoked, shredded brisket taco, either in barbecue or salsa flavor. Taco Cabana is also adding a daily Happy Hour and new packaging, streamlined menus and counter displays. Taco Cabana will launch its new ad campaign on May 3.

Houston Mid-Range Ranking in Forbes "Best Bang for the Buck" Cities

This from the Forbes.com (www.forbes.com) website:

Houston, TX came in 68th in the USA "Best Bang for the Buck" ranking on Forbes.com. Here's the link to the list:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/30/cities-affordable-cheap-lifestyle-real-estate-housing-foreclosures_chart.html

Dallas, TX was in 64th place, Austin came in at 45th, San Antonio at 39th, El Paso was 33rd, and metro McAllen topped the Texas cities at 7th.

Houston struggled in areas such as real estate taxes, travel commute time, and real estate vacancies. However, Houston was ranked 13th in the job forecast category.

Houston Named as #4 Best City for Retirees by Forbes Magazine

The Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area ranks No. 4 on a new list by Forbes of America’s 40 “recession proof” retirement cities.

Forbes said it considered such factors as average income for seniors, current and expected home prices, job-growth predictions through 2014, the cost of living and median monthly housing cost.

The Houston area ranked 33rd for home price change predicted for 2009-2014, 21st for number of sunny days, 18th for income of residents 65 and older, 15th for median home price, 13th for median monthly housing cost and fourth for both cost of living and job growth predicted for 2009-2014.

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Ga. took the top ranking and was followed by Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.

Austin-Round Rock shared the No. 5 slot with St. Louis, Mo., while San Antonio came in at No. 10.

New York finished last among the 40 cities, with Milwaukee and Boston rounding out the bottom three.

Whataburger Clothing? It's the Gift for the Person "Who Has It All"!

This blurb from the HBJ:

Whataburger Restaurants LP is launching a new apparel line that will allow customers to custom-design and order Whataburger-branded T-shirts.
The hamburger chain, which has more than 60 locations in the Houston area, has created a place on the company’s Web site (www.whataburger.com) where shoppers can order men’s and women’s shirts.
Customers will be able to order shirts featuring Whataburger’s logo and images of the dots cooks use to denote special-order sandwiches. Whataburger will sell the shirts for $18 through its Web site.
Harmon Dobson founded Whataburger in Corpus Christi in 1950. Today, the company is based in San Antonio and has nearly 700 locations in 10 states with annual sales of more than $1 billion.