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The latest economy news from The Texas Tribune.

  • Open for Business

    By Julián Aguilar

    So much for the economic impact of headline-making violence. Despite being on track to exceed 3,000 homicides this year, Juárez has seen its manufacturing sector flourish, regaining since July 2009 a quarter of the jobs lost during the height of the recession. More than $42 billion in trade value moved through the ports that the city shares with El Paso last year, and that number should be higher in 2010. And the amount of of tractor-trailer traffic hauling goods through the region was 22 percent greater in the first six months of this year than it was in the same period last year. Full Story 

    Factory workers in Ciudad Juárez assemble components for hair dryers on a manufacturing line managed by El Paso-based TECMA, an outsourcing company that had one of the best years on record in 2009. Last year’s success came despite Ciudad Juárez logging more than 2,600 murders.
    Credit: Julián Aguilar

  • School's Out

    By Morgan Smith

    The budget shortfall — estimated to be as much as $28 billion — will require the Legislature to take a paring knife and possibly a machete to government agencies and programs. The largest single consumer of state dollars is public education, so it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which funding for teacher salaries, curricular materials and the like isn’t on the chopping block, especially if lawmakers want to make good on their promises of no new taxes. But where is that money going to come from? Full Story 

    Crowded classroom in Edgewood School District, San Antonio, TX
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • Sell It Like It Is

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Republican leaders in the Texas Legislature are insisting that it will be a no-new-taxes session. In response, one Democratic lawmaker is pushing to expand the definition of the word "taxes" to include fees. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports. Full Story 

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    Credit: flickr.com/photos/dborman2

  • Sell It Like It Is

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Republican leaders in the Texas Legislature are insisting that it will be a no-new-taxes session. In response, one Democratic lawmaker is pushing to expand the definition of the word "taxes" to include fees. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Inside Intelligence: The Railroad Commission Should Be...

    By Ross Ramsey

    For this week's installment of our nonscientific survey of political and policy insiders on issues of the moment, we asked whether the Texas Railroad Commission should live or die and whether the commissioners ought to be appointed or elected. And we asked for suggestions on what government is doing now that it ought to stop doing. Full Story 

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  • Unemployment Benefits Set to Run Out for Many Texans

    By Matt Largey, KUT News

    New jobless numbers show that the nation as a whole added fewer jobs than expected last month. Here in Texas, things appear better, but there are still plenty of people out of work — and as Matt Largey of KUT News reports, the job market can be an especially daunting place for those who are out of work the longest. Full Story 

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  • The Efficiency Experts

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    "Efficiency" is the buzzword heading into the 2011 legislative session. Lawmakers say they want to make sure the dollars spent on K-12 education are being spent as efficiently as possible — and that anything deemed inefficient could end up the chopping block. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • The Efficiency Experts

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    "Efficiency" is the buzzword heading into the 2011 legislative session. Lawmakers say they want to make sure the dollars spent on K-12 education are being spent as efficiently as possible — and that anything deemed inefficient could end up the chopping block. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • Incentives Under Fire

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Gov. Rick Perry’s office has asked a member of the Emerging Technology Fund’s advisory committee to consider resigning over a recent investigation into a stock deal — the latest dustup involving state incentive funds. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Bob Daemmrich/Todd Wiseman

  • Emerging Trouble for Incentive Funds

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Governor Rick Perry’s office has asked a member of the Emerging Technology Fund’s advisory committee to consider resigning over a recent investigation by the Texas Rangers. This is just the latest dust up over this fund and the Texas Enterprise Fund. Ben Philpott of KUT and The Texas Tribune reports on what could happen to the funds in the next Legislative session. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Bob Daemmrich/Todd Wiseman

  • There Will Be Blood

    By Ross Ramsey

    Ask House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, and he'll tell you: The budget he and his fellow finance types will put forward in a few weeks confirms fears that carnage is looming. "We're making huge cuts," he told a Tea Party group last week. Full Story 

    State Representative Jim Pitts, representing District 10. District 10 includes Ellis County and Hill County, Texas.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • TribBlog: Pitts Sees Deep Cuts Ahead

    By Ross Ramsey

    State budget writers will propose eliminating agencies, cutting others to a quarter of their current size and mandating furloughs for state employees to balance the budget without raising taxes or using the state's Rainy Day Fund, Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts told a hometown crowd. Full Story 

    Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie)
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • Holding Steady

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Texas added almost 48,000 jobs from September to October this year according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Ben Philpott reports for KUT News and the Texas Tribune on the numbers below the job gains. Full Story 

    More jobs in Texas...but more people looking too.
    Credit: Ben Philpott

  • Holding Steady

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Texas' unemployment rate stabilized in October at 8.1 percent as the state added almost 48,000 jobs. That rate, the lowest we've seen in 2010, is 1.5 points below the national average. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports on the numbers behind the gains. Full Story 

    More jobs in Texas...but more people looking too.
    Credit: Ben Philpott

  • Inside Intelligence: The Budget Will Be Balanced By...

    By Ross Ramsey

    For this week's installment of our non-scientific survey of political and policy insiders on issues of the moment, we focused on the budget. Specifically, we asked how big the shortfall is going to be, how the Legislature will close the gap and which areas of the budget are most likely to be cut. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • Arlene Wohlgemuth: The TT Interview

    By Ross Ramsey

    The former budget-slashing Texas House member and current executive director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation on how she reads the mood out there, what reductions in state spending should be on the table, whether cost-shifting to local school districts is a plausible option, why lawmakers should forget about new sources of revenue, the trouble with Medicaid and what members of the Republican near-supermajority in the Legislature must do to keep the confidence of voters — and get re-elected. Full Story 

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