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.An analysis of 45 TEF projects that received a total of $363 million in tax subsidies finds that a growing number of TEF recipients defaulted on their job-creation pledges in 2008, with even more defaults expected for 2009.
Key findings of TPJ's analysis reveal:
* The Governor's Office has awarded $363 million to 45 TEF recipients to create or maintain 47,735 jobs. These projects claimed 31,319 jobs in compliance reports covering 2008.
* Just 13 of the 45 job-related projects reviewed were performing well.
*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 million in TEF funding that they received.
* The Governor has imposed the "death penalty" on just two TEF projects despite the fact that many other TEF recipients have qualified for termination.
* In February 2009, Perry declared that the TEF program had created 54,000 jobs since 2003. More than one-third of these jobs are pledges that have yet to materialize.
Read the full Watch Your Assets report.
