Revisiting Rick Perry's Corporate Welfare Giveaways

 
Alex MacGillis at ProPublica takes a look at
 Rick Perry’s Texas Giveaways.

Read TPJ's 2010 report on Perry's Enterprise Fund grants.

Con Job: Campaign Money & Phantom Jobs at the Texas Enterprise Fund

TPJ has documented the questionable job creation reports at the Texas Enterprise Fund since 2010. TPJ has also tracked campaign contributions from TEC grant recipients to Governor Perry and other state officials. Today's auditor report on TEF warrants revisiting some of our research.

Lobby Watch: Texas Big Three Bag Enterprise-Fund Millions.

Con Job: Report Finds Most Texas Enterprise Fund Grantees Failed to Deliver in 2010.

Rick Perry's Piggybank.

Lobby Watch: Toomey Firm Lobbies for Company Seeking Perry Handout

AAA Auto Club--which is seeking a taxpayer handout from Governor Perry--is headed by a Perry pal and patron...whose lobby firm is headed by Perry's former chief of staff and ex-roommate. Texas' crony capitalist state has become so inbred that Lobby Watch can no longer tell whose sitting in the driver's seat. Read the new Lobby Watch.

Lobby Watch: Texas Taxpayers Gave $1.8 Million to Obamacare IT Firm

A year after Obamacare’s birth, a fierce critic of the program inadvertently helped sabotage it by awarding $1.8 million in Texas taxpayer funds to subsidize Montreal-based CGI Group. This technology firm incubated by Governor Perry was the lead contractor producing the bug-infested software that crippled Obamacare’s rollout.

Read the details in the new Lobby Watch.

Lobby Watch: Big 3 Bag Millions from TEF Recipients

The three GOP officials who oversee the Texas Enterprise Fund have collected $3.6 million in campaign cash tied to recipients of $307 million in Enterprise Fund awards. The Republican Party of Texas collected another $1.7 million from Enterprise Fund contributors.

Lobby Watch explores how the taxpayer-funded Enterprise Fund protects the three most important jobs in Texas.

TPJ Calls on U.S. Attorney to Invesigate Governor's Business Grant Programs

TPJ sent a letter today to U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman asking his office to investigate potential misconduct at the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, the Texas Emerging Technology Fund and the Texas Enterprise Fund.

Read the TPJ letter here.
Read news story at the Texas Tribune.

Nader Calls on Apple to Reject Texas Taxpayer Welfare

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader joined TPJ in calling on Apple CEO Tim Cook to reject taxpayer incentives from Texas state, city and county governments to expand an existing Austin facility.

Read Nader's letter to Cook.

TPJ Urges Apple CEO Tim Cook To Reject Corporate Welfare To Ease Apple’s Excess Cash Problems

Texans for Public Justice sent Apple CEO Tim Cook a letter today, urging the head of the world’s wealthiest company to reject a $21 million taxpayer grant offered by Governor Rick Perry to expand Apple’s operations in Austin. TPJ asked Cook to also decline another $14.5 million in incentives that the City of Austin and Travis County are considering giving to the technology giant.

Apple is struggling to find ways to dispose of an unprecedented $100 billion in cash reserves. TPJ notes that Texas tax dollars will only exacerbate this excruciating cash surplus. Given that Apple is choking on too much cash, TPJ advised Cook to stop taking corporate welfare.

Read TPJ’s letter to Tim Cook.

Good Jobs First report tracks quality of Texas' subsidy jobs

A new report by Washington-based Good Jobs First, Money for Something, evaluates the quality of jobs (based on wage & benefit standards) created through state taxpayer subsidy programs. Texas earns a C-minus.

Read the Money for Something report at Good Jobs First.

CON JOB: Report Finds Most Texas Enterprise Fund Grantees Failed to Deliver in 2010

New TPJ report finds that most of Governor Rick Perry’s Texas Enterprise Fund projects failed to deliver on their 2010 job promises. The study analyzes compliance reports filed by 65 companies that received $350 million to create Texas jobs in 2010.

Read the press release.

Read the full CON JOB report..

Perry's Piggybank: Enterprise Fund Recipients Give $7 Million

Forty-three companies that received $333 million in grants from the Texas Enterprise Fund contributed almost $7 million to Perry's campaign committee and the Perry-affiliated Republican Governors Association.

Read the Perry's Piggybank report.

Report: Texas Corporate Subsidy Programs Among Nation's Most Wasteful

A new report by Washington-based research organization Good Jobs First highlights 10 corporate subsidy programs it deems the most ineffective and wasteful in the nation. Governor Perry's Texas Enterprise Fund and Emerging Technology Fund programs make the worst 10 list.

Read the report at Good Jobs First.

Austin American-Statesman Joins Call for Greater Transparency in Perry's Corporate Welfare Funds

The Austin American-Statesman publishes a strong editorial calling for greater transparency at the Enterprise and Emerging Technology Funds.

Read the Statesman editorial.

Bill to Strip Governor's Power Over Development Slush Funds Introduced

Dallas Republican Senator John Corona has introduced legislation (SB 991) to remove Governor Perry's near-total decision making power over the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Emerging Technology Fund. Corona's measure would create independent citizen committees to oversee the funds and approve all taxpayer grants.

Read news coverage at the Dallas Morning News.
Read the Morning News editorial supporting the bill.

Star-Telegram: Suspend state economic development incentives

An editorial from the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram argues that the Governor's pet corporate welfare programs be suspended in light of the state's budget woes. It also calls for creating more accountability within the programs.

Read the editorial at the Star-Telegram.

TPJ Calls on Perry, Dewhurst & Straus To Investigate State Grant to Sematech

Did Sematech Cheat on Texas By Loving New York
in the Middle of its $40 Million Subsidy Deal?

TPJ today urged Texas’ top three officials who oversee the Texas Enterprise Fund to investigate if Sematech violated the 2004 contract it signed to obtain $40 million in state funds. TPJ urged the officials to either “enforce compliance or recover the funds that failed to deliver the promised benefits.”

Read the press release.
Read the letter to Perry, Dewhurst & Straus.