The latest economy news from The Texas Tribune.
Rick Perry's presidential campaign reportedly spent $175,000 on its first ad buy in Iowa, whose crucial caucus is a little more than two months away. The ad focuses on job creation efforts in Texas during Perry's tenure as governor. Full Story
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A successful challenge to the state's primary business tax would throw lawmakers into special session to try to find enough money to pay for public schools, a lawyer for the state told the Texas Supreme Court today. Full Story
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At last Thursday's TribLive conversation, Comptroller Susan Combs talked about the health of the Texas economy, her agency's data breach, her shifting position on abortion and more. Full Story
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Texas added 15,400 new jobs last month, according to statistics released today by the Texas Workforce Commission. The Texas unemployment rate, which increased over the last three months, remained steady in September at 8.5 percent. Full Story
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At this morning's TribLive conversation, Comptroller Susan Combs talked about the billions cut from the state budget during the last legislative session — and whether kicking the can down the road on health care costs was a sound financial decision. Full Story
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At this morning's TribLive conversation, Comptroller Susan Combs talked about the health of the Texas economy — and whether unemployment creeping up is cause for concern. Full Story
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U.S. Senate candidate Tom Leppert, the former Dallas mayor, has released a new campaign spot that boasts of his job creation experience, and takes a swipe at so-called "career politicians." Full Story
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Aaronson interactively asks if stimulus funds created jobs in Texas, Aguilar on new voter registrar rules that could decrease voter turnout, Galbraith on a UT professor's debunking of climate change "myths," Grissom on an epic clash of El Paso political titans, Hamilton on the right's new higher ed guru, Murphy maps household data from the 2010 Census, Ramsey on a coming rules fight in the Texas Senate, Root and M. Smith on Rick Perry's performance at the New Hampshire debate and M. Smith talks public ed cuts with the state's Superintendent of the Year: The best of our best content from October 10-14, 2011. Full Story
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This interactive table shows how much stimulus funding was awarded to state agencies, how it was received and spent, and the number of jobs created or retained with the money, according to quarterly reports filed by recipients of stimulus funds. Full Story
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Murphy, Ramshaw and Root on Rick Perry and race, Philpott on Perry's vague economic plans, Tan and Wiseman on Barack Obama's foray into Texas to defend his jobs plan, Aguilar on Perry's proposal to send U.S. troops to Mexico, Ramshaw on efforts to leash rising health care costs, M. Smith on upcoming legal challenges to the state's school finance system, Aaronson interactively explores Medicare spending proposals, Galbraith on efforts to pass — and to oppose — a $6 billion water program, Grissom on the release of a man wrongly convicted of murder and Hamilton on efforts to let the public write some legislation: The best of our best content from October 3 to 7, 2011. Full Story
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Texas’s congressional Republicans seized on new unemployment numbers to decry President Obama’s economic policies days after he stopped in Mesquite to sell his jobs plan. Full Story
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MESQUITE — While speaking at Eastfield College today, President Barack Obama invoked the name of a laid-off Texas teacher and challenged GOP House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to bring up the American Jobs Act for a vote on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Full Story
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President Obama delivered an impassioned defense of his jobs plan in Mesquite — and strong rhetoric against his GOP critics. Full Story
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Rick Perry's campaign has released a video in anticipation of President Obama's scheduled visits to Dallas and Mesquite today. The video mocks the president's 2009 stimulus plan before highlighting Perry's "four core principles" for creating jobs. Full Story
President Obama, scheduled to push his jobs plan today in Dallas, is stepping into politically hostile territory to challenge Gov. Rick Perry on what the Perry campaign believes is the Texan's strongest issue: job creation. Full Story
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Aaronson on the shrinking of state government, Aguilar on the controversy over in-state tuition for the children of undocumented immigrants, Galbraith on Rick Perry vs. the EPA, Grissom on a startling development in a 25-year-old murder case, Hamilton on Ken Starr's first year as president of Baylor, Ramsey on what inmates have to do with redistricting, Ramshaw on the state's crisis in insurance coverage, Root on Perry's presidential grind dance and Smith on obstacles to addressing childhood obesity: The best of our best content from Sept. 26-30, 2011. Full Story
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The Tribune loves infographics, including the recent one posted by the Perry campaign called “State of Texas Economy.” But like all claims made by a political campaign, it deserves the scrutiny of a fact-checking exercise. Full Story
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The numbers prove it: State government is shrinking. Many attribute the drop in state jobs to the budget cuts lawmakers passed last legislative session. But agencies had been preparing for the deficit by dropping employees for more than a year. Full Story
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Anticipating the $15 billion in budget cuts lawmakers passed during the legislative session, state agencies have been dropping employees for more than a year. This table shows employment changes at state agencies from May 2010 to May 2011. Full Story
Protesters gathered outside the Headliners Club in Austin to urge U.S. House Speaker John Boehner and Congress to pass the American Jobs Act. Boehner was in Austin to attend a reception with several GOP congressmen from Texas. Full Story
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