Day 2 - TX Dept. of Agriculture - Austin

We met Ms. Judy Fort form the Texas Department of Agriculture responsible of rural economic development. She supports such smaller rural cities. Ms. Fort stated that many smaller cities economic development staffs must wear many hats to fulfill their positions. Economic developers vie for business and their retention. The business types vary and include wind turbines, and manufacturing. Ms. Fort gave a list of Texas’s primary core sectors of business that include aerospace defense, biotech energy, computer technology, and petroleum refining amongst others.

Sales tax on certain items such as clothes, prepared food, and etc… can go into a pool of funds which the state can then disburse as loans. The Texas Capital Fund uses $10 million per year typically for small manufacturing companies. The loans are given on a need basis and the cities poverty rates. The state would like to see job creation through these loans to stimulate the rural communities. Loans can get as high as $750k to cities with less than 50,000 residents and counties less than 250,000 residents. Borrowers are required to hire 51% low to moderate income employees, and must submit their financial records. The county may support the building of newer roads if deemed necessary for larger distribution vehicles up to the business owners’ property line. Most businesses typically try to stay away from retail projects.

The State of Texas doesn’t dictate what cities must do such as have industrial parks. Ms. Fort stated she noticed that several cities want new homes in their communities but have not thought about the financing requirements to support such development.

When industries fail in these smaller cities it can be very difficult. She gave one example of a city dependent on their turkey farms. Once their main client no longer needed their services due to over supply in the turkey market people were left with large debts for the turkey facilities without the ability to payback the loans.

Ms. Fort was extremely informative and dispelled the myths of free money grants.

Furthermore we discussed the Go Texan Certified Retirement Community Program detailing that 40,000 people relocate each year to Texas. There was an emphasis placed on catering to the baby boom generation throughout smaller cities to capture their spending power. However these cities must also provide convenient living for these potential residents such as grocery and entertainment venues.