Print đź–¨

House International Relations & Economic Development met on March 7 to hear invited testimony from the Texas Workforce Commission, Texas Economic Development Council, Texas Economic Development Corporation, Texas Office of State-Federal Relations, and the Texas Secretary of State. An archive of the hearing can be found here.

 

This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.

 

Opening Comments

  • Button – Thanks to all the members of the committee look forward to working and discussing economic development to help the state
  • If anyone has any questions, or needs help with bills, do not hesitate to contact any of the individuals we are hearing from today

 

Texas Workforce Commission (TWC)

Ed Serna, TWC

  • TWC is the 2nd largest workforce agency in the nation
  • TWC’s budget request is $5B; does not included $2B for uninsurance trust fund
  • 86% of budget is federal, the rest is GR
  • Agency has 4900 FTEs and around 200 vacancies a month
  • The agency is responsible for 4 types of programs:
  • Unemployment Insurance – responsible for unemployment insurance benefits; during COVID agency received 4M claims and paid $55B in benefits, it was equivalent to 7 years’ worth of claims
  • Workforce Development- budget of $420M/year primarily federal funds; fuds are utilized by issuing grants to the board and providers; dev boards are appointed by local elected officials; provided workforce literacy; responsible for apprenticeship program, have funding request for industry apprenticeship program; provide free work matching site; responsible for portions of SNAP
  • Childcare- is the largest program and largest budget item; will be at $1B in funding for childcare, supports 140K children a day; promote quality childcare through Texas Rising Star Program; have childcare availability portal to determine what services are available
  • Workforce Vocational Rehabilitation- purpose is to provide tools and assistance to individuals with disability, but those individuals must be able to enter employment
  • Two smaller programs:
  • TWC is the state’s civil rights organization; EI of $650K to hire 6 FTEs
  • Have effective fraud, deterrence and compliance monitoring function
  • Agency operates skills development program- allocate $17-19M/year in grants to provide skills training to workforce
  • JET program provides funding to institutions to buy equipment that can be trained on; gave a list of all the partners TWC works with, gave Higher Ed. as an example
  • Last session there were 4 significant bills for childcare
    • S. Thompson- childcare workforce plan- required TWC to develop strategic plan to provide childcare; plan will be updated in three years
    • Button- Texas Rising Star Assessors on track for April of this month
    • Talarico- mandating Texas Rising Star for all childcare participants in TWC system, requires that individuals have 2 years then be put on program; exam indications that of 7K providers 15 won’t be eligible
    • SB 1555 Zaffirini- Required the alignment of TWC childcare age groups to match childcare regulation

 

Texas Economic Development Corporation (TxEDC)

Adriana Cruz, Texas Economic Development and Tourism Office

  • Agency is a trustee program for the Governor’s office
  • Explained the mission of the agency; enhance economic opportunities for all Texans
  • The agency has 6 divisions:
  • Business and Community Development – markets and promotes Texas as a primer business location; International trade and development team help with international trade with Mexico; office of aerospace and aviation is apart of the group; office of small business assistance helps small and medium size business through advocacy
  • Economic Development Finance – group that oversees and administers business incentive programs and houses Texas economic development bank; thanks to HB 3271 office was able to create Texas small business office
  • Texas Workforce Investment Council – responsible for promoting the development of well-educated and highly skilled workforce for Texas and advocating for integrated workforce system that address Texas’s business needs
  • Texas Film commission – first stop for film, videogame, and media industry; services included location and production services, permit guidance, state property use, safety on set, and production FAQs
  • Office underwent sunset review and found it had 3 issues:
  • Removed aerospace advisory committee
  • Request improvement on communication on bank programs
  • Recommended providing more assistance to communities for tourism expansion
  • Clardy – Thank you for all the work you do, would like to ask why the Sunset review recommended to remove aerospace?
    • Office of aerospace and aviation was absorbed by our office; is the only organization that has its own function in our office; we are still going to have an advisory committee for it

 

Texas Secretary of State (SOS)

Carlos Ealy, Mexican and Border Affairs for SOS

  • Listed the responsibilities of the office and the issue it assists the governor’s office with
  • The Texas, Mexico relationship is worth $285B annually
  • Texas border region experienced 68% population growth from 1990-2022
  • Agency communicates regularly with border community stakeholders; it supported the passage of United States Mexico Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA)
  • Texas has historic opportunity to increase investment in Mexico; i.e., Tesla factory Mexico built
  • Secretary Nelson serves as chair of border trade advisory committee, works with department of Transportation
  • In 2020 TXDOT publish critical border transportation plan to support states global economic competitiveness

 

Texas Office of State-Federal Relations (OSFR)

Wes Hambrick, OSFR

  • In 1971 became separate but is distractively attached to governors’ office
  • Explained the role of the agency and how it coordinates between the state and fed government
  • Congress appropriated federal dollars through 6 separate packages:
  • The first two were to fund state health departments
  • CARES act was third; it created paycheck protection program and establish pandemic assistance program; funds for education
  • ARPA was next and sent $350B to state and local government; Texas is required to publish annually on the use of funds
  • CHIPS Act is meant to encourage the construction of manufacturing facilities in the US; contain $50B for science and tech; for Texas to be best position to successfully leverage funds there a several policy and funding decisions for the legislature to consider, state support for workforce training programs, Higher Education research proposals, Infrastructure improvements, Tax Incentive programs, and deal closing funds
  • Infrastructure and Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) many programs require non-federal matching funds and potential include strings attached
  • Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) contained provision on taxes, healthcare and more
  • There has been an increased volume in federal funds, there is a lot the state doesn’t know about the bills and must wait on federal agencies to issue guidance
  • Governor sent a letter asking agencies to review IIJA and consider all the requirements; if rules and regulations hinder the state, the agreement should not be signed
  • Hayes – Is there a document that shows all the incentives available to business?
    • We can get you that info
  • Button – It looks like there are a lot of strings attached and seems complicated, i.e., CHIPS Act still being discussed, can you share what other states are doing, are they as confused as us?
    • We aren’t affected like other states because we are bigger; we do have an obligation to see if they are beneficial to the state; if the regulation is too great, we have the luxury to say no; agencies perspective is that other states are trying to digest that information, the department of commerce is looking to meet with other states to discuss the issues
  • Button – There seems to be a lot of social issues injected in the IIJA; there seems to be a lot of cost and burden for small business to apply could you address why?
    • It is related to more than just the infrastructure bill; the burden to apply for some of the funding is incredibly high

 

Texas Economic Development Council (TEDC)

Carlton Schwab, TEDC

  • The agency provides a local economic development guidebook that takes programs and laws at the local level and boil it down to 20 pages; they use it to educate local officials
  • Gave an overview of the agency’s history
  • Shine passed a bill a while ago that created the local economic development sales act that helped boost local and state economy
  • There are 725 eco development corporations in the state that bring in $1.2B combined annually that support the eco and community development; $300M of that is spent on infrastructure
  • Ask the legislature to continue promoting incentive programs at the local level; e.g., Ch. 311,312
  • HB 1 in 2001 created Chapter 313s, Rep. Shine is working on replacement for this program