Governor Perry’s Pet Jobs Program Suffers Its Own Recession

[sonias]

Governor Perry’s Pet Jobs Program Suffers Its Own Recession

Texans for Public Justice
http://www.tpj.org/
January 27, 2010

Austin, TX: Many projects receiving millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies through Governor Rick Perry’s high-profile Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) failed to meet their contractual job-creation targets as the recession took hold in 2008, according to a new analysis by Texans for Public Justice.

Key findings of TPJ’s analysis reveal:

(snip)
*Just 13 of the 45 job-related projects reviewed were performing well. Twelve deals were non-performing, with two of these canceled outright. Nine deals were troubled, casting doubt on their future job targets. The Governor’s Office signed amendments that weaken the jobs targets in eight development deals. And the jobs provisions in three other deals were fundamentally weak the day that they were signed.

*As of October 2009 the Governor has penalized 11 TEF grantees for defaulting on their job creation commitments. These penalties, totaling $647,100, amount to just 1 percent of the $64.1 million in TEF funding that they received.

(snip)
* In February 2009, Governor Perry declared that the TEF program had created 54,000 jobs since 2003. More than one-third of these jobs are job pledges that have yet to materialize.


UPDATE: In anticipation of the release of our report, Governor Perry's office announced late yesterday that they had amended 11 TEF contracts and canceled 2 additional contracts. Read the Governor's announcement.

The full TPJ report - Watch Your Assets Report


Perry is exaggerating again about job creation. :eyes:

Sonia

[sonias]

1. Report: Enterprise fund companies struggling

AAS 1/26/10
Report: Enterprise fund companies struggling

AUSTIN, Texas — More than 20 companies receiving taxpayer-funded Texas Enterprise Fund grants failed to meet their job creation promises in 2008 or struggled to do so, according to a new report.

(snip)
Shortly after Perry's office learned the TPJ report was to be made public, his staff announced late Tuesday that it had changed 11 enterprise fund contracts and ended two others. Perry's aides said that's allowed as long as a company is in good standing with the state.

You can tell it's an election season by how fast Perry responds to problems.

:popcorn:


Sonia

[sonias]

2. Report criticizes state incentives fund

AAS 1/28/10
Report criticizes state incentives fund
Quiet reworking of contracts shows governor has overrated program's benefits, Texans for Public Justice says

(snip)
In a report released Wednesday, Texans for Public Justice cited those secret changes as evidence that Perry has oversold the benefits of the fund to the state's economy.

"The governor has overstated and exaggerated the benefits of the enterprise fund while understating the serious problems the program has since the start of the recession," said Andrew Wheat, research director of Texans for Public Justice, a nonprofit group that tracks money in politics and advocates corporate accountability. "Listening to the governor's office, you would think (enterprise fund projects) were a gold mine. They have failed to come straight with the taxpayers about this fund."

(snip)
The report said more than 20 companies had failed or struggled to meet job goals and two contracts had been terminated without public notice: an agreement with Hewlett-Packard Co. for data centers in Austin and Houston, and a $20 million deal with Countrywide Home Loans to create 7,500 jobs in North Texas. H-P and Bank of America Corp., which bought Countrywide in 2008, agreed to return their incentives payments.

The report could add fuel to criticism of Perry by U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, his main opponent in the Republican gubernatorial primary.

Sonia

[sonias]

3. Perry’s corporate welfare not paying off for Texas

Eye on Williamson County 1/27/10
Perry’s corporate welfare not paying off for Texas

(snip)
Read the full report, Recession Pounds Perry’s Jobs Fund. Which includes this nugget:

Unemployment Insurance Has Funded the Enterprise Fund

Texas’ Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund is running out of money to pay benefits to all the state’s laid-off workers, including those laid off by companies subsidized by the Texas Enterprise Fund. The irony here is that the state unemployment fund has transferred $161.5 million to Governor Perry’s job fund since the legislature authorized such funding in 2005. The Texas Workforce Commission recently announced that the unemployment-insurance taxes paid by most employers will almost triple in 2010 to cover shortfalls. In other funding, the legislature has appropriated $577 million for TEF since 2003 (though it snubbed Governor Perry’s request for $261 million more in 2009).

Sonia