Texas Governor Offers Facebook $1.4 Million To Open New Office In Austin

Facebook has been scouting out various locations for their new office and Texas wants their business. Governor Rick Perry announced in a Facebook note, that his state would be willing to provide Facebook with $1.4 million in incentives if their new office were to be opened in that state.

The move would provide 200 jobs to tech savvy programmers in Austin, many of which were displaced when Google opened their own offices in the city back in 2008, only to close shop several months later.

The deal would require Austin to throw $200,000 into the project, with the rest coming from State funding.

The jobs being offered would come with average salaries of $54,000, approximately $12,000 higher than the cities median income level.

It’s still unclear if Facebook will take the offer seriously, but here’s a noncommittal response from the companies COO:

“We’ve been exploring various options around the U.S. to establish an additional online sales and operations office … Austin, with its deep talent pool, would allow us to hire the high-caliber employees we need to properly serve the people, advertisers and developers that rely on our service.”

One thing is for certain, this move could greatly improve the tech scene which is still reeling from Google’s pull out in 2008. [Mashable]