The House Select Committee on Economic Competitiveness has completed their hearings. The committee is charged with finding recommendations in seven areas:
- Examine commitments by the state to education and workforce development to ensure Texans and their employers access to high-paying and skilled workers;
- Examine infrastructure — including transportation, energy, water and utility — to ensure capacity to accommodate growing existing businesses and companies settling in Texas;
- Examine access to investment capital required to maintain healthy existing companies and newcomers to Texas;
- Examine investments in innovation, including barriers to innovation such as unnecessary regulations that would deter or impede the desire of a business to either remain in the state or choose to locate here;
- Examine existing and potential economic tools to compete for or retain jobs, including the appropriate use of those tools and the effectiveness of existing economic development programs;
- Examine the tools and authority of local governments to craft appropriate and specific responses to accommodate growing existing businesses and companies settling in Texas; and
- Examine successful and unsuccessful attempts to lure economic development projects to the state or other states, including common themes reported by companies and employees in choosing to locate or not locate to a state.
The committee was expected to turn in its report to House Speaker Joe Straus earlier in the month but Straus sent a letter to Committee Chairman Byron Cook stating the importance of taking the time necessary to produce a report that is useful and comprehensive, "even if it takes a few weeks longer than originally anticipated."
