Every company wants to have a headquarters in Texas, especially if they deal in oil, finance and manufacturing, so it’s no surprise that Oklahoma petroleum companies are moving to the Lone Star State.

But the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma’s President Brook A. Simmons says his state needs to take the defections of Devon Energy and Expand Energy as personal as well economic losses.

Simmons said last week that Oklahoma has been raising oil and gas production taxes, and that’s led to companies considering moves to states with lower taxes.

Houston is the third largest metro area for corporate headquarters (after New York City and Chicago) and Dallas is home to airlines, Chase Bank, AT&T and the Nasdaq, and Texas is known for one of the most pro-business economies in the nation.

“As one oil and natural gas CEO said, ‘The Houston skyline is a monument to poor public policy decisions in Louisiana and Oklahoma,'” Simmons wrote. 

Fort Worth-based Pecos Operating’s Rey “R.T.” Trevino says it may be true, the Sooner State may have let tax rates run a little too high.

And the effects on Oklahoma could be serious because “the reduced corporate activity could strain [the state] budgets even more, and could potentially affect funding for things like education, infrastructure and public services.”

And while he notes that “Okahoma views these moves as rooting in policy failures,” it’s also a simple fact that the Texas oil business is strong and “Houston is considered one of the epicenters of long-term stability,” both in and out of the oil and gas business.