“Winner-winner, chicken dinner?”

Texas can soon brag about snatching another major corporation’s global headquarters thanks to its relatively business-friendly and tax-averse political climate.

While not abandoning its Kentucky roots entirely, the fried chicken giant KFC is relocating its corporate office of around 200 employees from Louisville, Ky., and remote locations to Plano, Texas. The move, according to owner Yum! Brands, is to be closer to its other brands headquartered in Plano, just north of Dallas. Another corporate HQ is in Irvine, Calif.

Was this a bit a prophesy? An ad campaign a few years ago in France introduced the KFC Kentucky Burger, “the most all-American of sandwiches,” featuring a lookalike of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder and icon Colonel Harland Sanders heading “back home to Kentucky, where he’s the most wanted man,” according to an advertising industry blog. “The best sheriffs, and the worst bandits, gold miners on a donkey, and families in covered wagons — everyone’s after the Colonel. They’re all relentlessly searching, day and night, not because his head is on a wanted poster … but to get a chance to taste the new Kentucky burger.” (The screenshot above is from that campaign, which may be viewed here.)

Yet the imagery was not that of (nonetheless horse-famous) Kentucky but of the wild West — more like Texas than the Upland South. Regrettably for KFC devotees, it would not enter the chicken sandwich wars stateside to rival Popeye’s, Cane’s, and Chick-fil-A.

Meanwhile back in Texas … Gov. Greg Abbott touted in a November press release Texas being named the Top Business Climate in the nation for the second year in a row by the venerable trade publication Site Selection magazine. Though its ranking has since dropped a little, Dallas was in January ranked the No. 1 city for relocating a corporate business, trailed by Austin which tied for sixth with Chicago.

In addition to the overall No. 1 ranking from 2024, Texas also topped all states in the survey of corporate real estate executives and site selectors, one of the key data points in Site Selection’s annual Top Business Climate index, the release said. Other factors in Texas’ top ranking include the number of job-creating relocation and expansion projects in the state, as well as Texas’ pro-growth mindset, investments in workforce development and infrastructure, access to technology and tech talent, and a predictable regulatory environment.

“As the eighth largest economy in the world, Texas is [or was] the No. 1 destination for businesses to come here, succeed here, and create more good-paying jobs here for hardworking Texans,” Abbott said in a press release in November. “Texas offers advantages no other state can claim: a business-friendly climate — with no corporate or personal income tax — along with a highly skilled, diverse, and growing workforce, easy access to global markets, robust infrastructure, and a reasonable regulatory environment that allows innovative businesses and entrepreneurs to thrive.”

More about Site Selection’s Top Business Climate rankings and how they come up with it.

From the hip: Texas can thank its oil and gas economy for much of its surplus and ability to keep taxes low, as well as other thriving industries, and a now-30-year streak of Republican statewide leadership. But as legislators continue to confer through late May, they may wish to consider keeping the factors that keeps attracting major brands to the Lone Star State. Neighboring states may wish to emulate the Texas success story to curtail the ongoing Texodus.

Texas announced a $194.6 billion in revenue estimate for the legislature to dip into during the ongoing 89th Texas Legislature. That’s about a 1% decrease from the last two-year cycle, but no worries: Texas has a $23.8 billion surplus. Though not as high as the record-breaking surplus of $32.7 billion two years ago, it’s sure better than the $68 billion deficit California has racked up.