Some at the Capitol in Austin put Texas economy at risk
To paraphrase a familiar quote: The only thing necessary for something bad to happen in the Texas Legislature is for good people to do nothing.
If you like living in one of the country’s strongest state economies, it’s time to pay attention.
If you like the billions of dollars in corporate America’s investments in our state, it’s time to pay attention.
If you like the millions of jobs created by companies moving here from other states, it’s time to pay attention.
As a reminder of the state’s economic ascendency in recent years, here are just a few headlines and news reports citing the exodus of job creators from California alone to Texas:
Breitbart.com: “The top 10 states that California businesses have relocated to over the last seven years are in the following order: (1) Texas …”
Investor’s Business Daily: “California Won’t Fall Into The Sea – It’s Moving To Texas Instead.”
The Dallas Morning News: “Hundreds of companies and their workers have left California … trading in their surfboards for cowboy boots in many cases. By far, Texas gained the most from California’ corporate exodus …”
It would be very easy for me to fill the rest of this space with other media reports like these.
So, what’s happening in Austin to change this, you may ask?
For starters, Gov. Greg Abbott has asked the Legislature to fully fund the Texas Enterprise Fund with $108 million which he calls “deal closing” money.
He points out that more than 5,500 jobs and more than half a billion dollars of investment has come to Texas in the past two years as a result of this important resource.
Quoted in the Austin American-Statesman, he talked about the fund having added jobs from Amarillo to the Rio Grande Valley.
Both the Texas Senate and House of Representatives have responded by saying maybe he can have 40 percent of that amount over the next two years.
Others want to eliminate it altogether.
Colleyville state Sen. Konni Burton has proposed a bill that would abolish the fund.
She drafted a companion initiative that would repeal a section of the Economic Development Act adopted in 2002 that enumerated specific strategies, including attracting large-scale capital investment, for creatingnew, high-paying jobs.
The law enables state and local government officials to work with economic development professionals to compete with other states as an effective means to attract large-scale investments.
Based on the economic bonanza the state has enjoyed since that law was adopted, it’s a wonder that anyone would want to dismantle it.
Burton, echoing the demagoguery of Empower Texans, a statewide lobbying organization that contributes heavily to candidates who agree with its statist policies, says she is opposed to “corporate welfare” and “crony capitalism.”
At the center of this assault on the state’s ability to compete is the more important role that local governments play in growing their own economies.
Within the state framework that authorizes cities, counties and school districts to build their communities is the ability to make decisions directly responsive to local residents’ wishes.
If the governor has no resources to help, and if city councils, school boards and county commissioners lose these highly successful methods of creating jobs and economic opportunity, then the kind of headlines and news reports cited above will feature other states.
But not Texas.
For those who believe such an outcome is not a good thing, it’s time to let your public servants hear from you.
Richard Greene is a former Arlington mayor and served as an appointee of President George W. Bush as regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency.
This story was originally published February 17, 2017 at 3:35 PM with the headline "Some at the Capitol in Austin put Texas economy at risk."