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Business and economic development
February 9, 2010
Signing bonuses for hiring the unemployed
Texas businesses that hire jobless workers in coming months will be eligible to get $2,000 incentive payment designed to spur the still-struggling economy under a new program unveiled this afternoon.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Texas Workforce Commission officials formally launched the “Texas Back to Work” program at an Austin conference amid hopes that the Lone Star State, still relatively strong compared to other states, can be the first nationally to emerge from the continuing recession if new jobs can be created.
Workforce commission officials said as many as 15,000 unemployed Texans could go back to work through the program, which officials already want to extend by applying for an additional $50 million in federal funding.
“We’ve got to grow this locomotive called the Texas economy,” Dewhurst told an audience of several hundred local workforce board officials from across the state who were meeting at a downtown Austin hotel.
While Texas’ jobless rate is about 8.3 percent, compared with more than 9.7 percent nationally, Dewhurst said, “that’s no solace to someone who’s just lost their job. The No. 1 issue for everybody is jobs, the economy and how we keep growing it.”
Under the new program, Dewhurst said, employers will be eligible to receive a $2,000 in payments — four months at $500 a month — for hiring someone who’s unemployed and is receiving unemployment insurance. The new hires have to be retained for the four-month period — and the anticipation is that they will stay on beyond that date, he said.
Only private-sector employers can qualify for the new program.
“We’re talking about creating jobs that will continue long-term, not just for several months,” he said. “This is smart money.”
Dewhurst said the Legislature last year approved $15 million in state funds for the new program. It could be extended if federal officials approve a state request for an additional $50 million, said Ann Hatchitt, the workforce commission’s director of communications.
Hatchitt said the state could realize savings through the initiative if unemployed workers get a new job and stop collecting unemployment benefits, which average approximately $7,800 in 26 weeks.
Dewhurst said the new program is one of several steps the Legislature took last session to bolster job creation and training programs in Texas, in anticipation the recession might get worse — which it has.
“It’s my intention to continue this program going forward” with additional state funding in the 2011 budget, he said. “Texas has created hundreds of thousands of new jobs in recent years … but we need to create more. There are between 1,300 and 1,600 people moving to Texas every day,” he said.
Some 50,000 new jobs have been added in Texas in recent months, when other states are still losing them. Texas’ labor market grew 9.3 percent over the past decade, officials said, while most other large manufacturing states fell — some by double-digits.
During a recent visit to McAllen, Dewhurst said local leaders told him that while the number of new jobs was up, unemployment had not fallen. Reason: Jobless people are moving there in search of work from as far away as Michigan, New York, Florida and California.
“I looked in the parking lot and there were a lot of Michigan and California plates,” he said. “Everybody in the Valley who has a relative without a job, well, they’ve just moved to the Valley to find one.”
Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken said officials hope the new program stimulates job creation and the sagging economy. “We’re in for tougher times and need to think outside the box,” he said.
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July 9, 2009
California v. Texas: Head-to-head in Economist
The Economist magazine has weighed in on the age-old question: Which state is better — California or Texas?
“Thanks to low taxes and light regulation, Texas is booming,” the magazine reports, echoing a point made often by Gov. Rick Perry.
Texas has absorbed the shock of the economic recession while California has been walloped by it.
“It is easy to find evidence that California is in a funk,” citing the state’s crushing deficit, dysfunctional political system and soaring unemployment rate.
“Every year, over 100,000 more Americans leave the state than enter it.”
And it refers to economist Arthur Laffer, who made the same argument in a report issued last year by the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
But the Economist warns Texas not to get too cocky: “That lean Texan model has its problems,” particularly an insufficient investment in education and demographic changes that could overwhelm the state.
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December 16, 2008
Sunset: Don't abolish TRCC
The Sunset Advisory Commission late today voted not to abolish the controversial state agency that polices homebuilders and consumer complaints about shoddy construction, after years of complaints that the agency has become a tool of the industry it is supposed to regulate.
But commission members made it clear they want the Texas Residential Construction Commission to start doing a better job, recommending that complaints be resolved within 105 days and giving the agency more authority to revoke or suspend homebuilders’ licenses.
A staff report made public months ago had recommended the agency be abolished, arguing that it has been ineffective in policing the homebuilding industry amid consumer complaints that it is controlled by builders.
The sunset commission recommendation will now go to the Legislature for debate beginning in January.
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March 28, 2008
Judge strikes down strip club fee
A state district judge today ruled that Texas may not collect a $5-per-customer strip club fee that went into effect in January.
Judge Scott Jenkins wrote in an opinion that the fee, “while furthering laudable goals, violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and is therefore invalid.”
The Legislature created the fee last year to pay for sexual assault prevention programs and health insurance for low-income Texans. The Texas Entertainment Association Inc. — a group of adult cabarets — and Karpod Inc., the owner of an Amarillo club, sued the state over the fee.
It’s unclear though whether strip clubs will immediately stop collecting the fee. The state could appeal.
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April 2, 2007
Turner vows rebound on utility discount proposal
Rep. Sylvester Turner’s effort to restore electricity discounts for thousands of low-income Texans was delayed by a point of order in the Texas House on Monday, though Turner said he’ll retool the measure and bring it back soon.
“Not dead by a long shot,” the Houston Democrat said.
Rep. Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, derailed the proposal by invoking a House rule that restricts consideration of legislation diverting state funds until after lawmakers send a budget to the state comptroller and the comptroller certifies it — no earlier than the 119th day of each 140-day regular session.
Turner said he’ll fix the weakness exploited by Talton’s point of order by creating a dedicated account within the state budget.
Turner had proposed establishing a trust fund to corral dollars raised by a fee of about $1 levied on monthly electric bills. Utility discounts for low-income Texans were funded from the collected fees until 2003, when lawmakers shrunk the program. Members cut off the utility discounts entirely in 2005, with the fees’ revenue going to general budgetary purposes.
Turner seeks to bring the discounts back — adding in utility discounts for non-profit nursing homes as well.
Talton said he doesn’t think the fees should be collected at all. He said too that utilities are free to give discounts to customers, as it should be. “If I can vote for smaller government, it’s fine with me,” he said.
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