As he sat in traffic last Saturday on the final stretch of I-35 in Laredo in a truck loaded with U.S. goods, Higinio Navarrette was a microcosm of the holiday season on the border: an area where the local economy is as affected by security and cartel-related violence as it is by the nationwide economic slowdown.
Economy
Get the latest on jobs, business, growth, and policy shaping the state’s economy with in-depth reporting from The Texas Tribune.
Posted in
Demographics
Open for Business
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.
Posted in
Economy
School’s Out
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?
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Economy
TribBlog: The 2.5 Percent Solution [Updated]
As expected, state leaders are asking state agencies to cut their current budgets even more. This time, by 2.5 percent.
Posted in
Economy
Sell It Like It Is
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.
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Economy
Sell It Like It Is
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.
Posted in
Inside Intelligence
Inside Intelligence: The Railroad Commission Should Be…
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.
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Economy
Unemployment Benefits Set to Run Out for Many Texans
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.
Posted in
Economy
The Efficiency Experts
“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.
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Economy
The Efficiency Experts
“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.