In politics, there are many different types of people. Some leaders come into politics after successful business careers where they learn important values and develop a sense of what works in the global economy. Others, however, are more career politicians than anything else. These individuals make it their job to get elected and they make it their business to stay in office. Though these individuals continue to win and wield power in their prospective regions, they do little to help out the people who they are charged with serving. In Texas, the Enterprise Fund is a perfect example of career politicians at work.
Texas Governor Rick Perry is one of the individuals in charge of handing out funds from the quickly depleting Texas Enterprise Fund. Unfortunately for the Texas economy, too many of the fund’s dollars are going to help prop up corporate business interests. Career politicians have a way of helping out their friends at the country club, rather than serving the true interests of the people in their given district. This happens because most of these politicians need the continued financial and political backing of these individuals to get re-elected. Because they were not originally elected based upon their business merit or experience, they have very little to stand on other than the support of wealthy special interests.
With the Texas Enterprise fund, the idea was to hand out money to business in order to create new jobs. This was intended to boost the Texas economy, while enticing new businesses to locate in the state. Though it might sound good in theory, the execution has been poor, due in large part to the work of Rick Perry. The fund has given out money to many different businesses and few of them have lived up to their end of the agreement. Now, the governor’s office is much more interested in muddying the job creation numbers, so that Texas residents won’t know just how poorly the Enterprise Fund has been doing with its intended purpose.
Perry seems to be playing the political game to the best of his ability, but this is yet another example of how career politicians work for themselves and their friends, while not working for the majority of people in the state of Texas. The largest problem has been that Perry and company have allowed businesses to get away with not holding up their end of the bargain. Instead of sticking to the strict contracts written, the governor has let companies take government money, while delivering only a little bit on their promises to create jobs.
Of eleven companies handed government money in hopes of producing more jobs, the original target for job numbers was 6,472. When those companies failed to meet their goals, the Governor amended their contracts so that they only had to create just more than 3,000 jobs to keep on track. That more than 50% reduction is convenient for business CEOs, but it does little to help the more than 3,000 people who might have otherwise had jobs if the companies had stuck to their promises.
One of the biggest commitments was a $35 grant to Vaught Aircraft Industries, a company that promised to create 3,000 jobs back in 2004. As of 2008, the company had only created 821 jobs, failing miserably with the stated goal. That is not an uncommon result with the program, either. Company Texas Instruments received $50 million, as it pledged to create 1,000 new jobs. This was one of the grants that did not come with a real job creation requirement, though, so there was absolutely nothing to hold the company to its promises in using the public’s money.
All of these things are an example of poor leadership brought on by a career politician with a lack of experience. A politician with a strong background would understand that the foundation of the state’s economy is the small business industry. With that in mind, the money would be much better spent on those small business’s with a solid working plan, which might provide them with the opportunity to promote the Texas economy. Unfortunately, a career politician like Perry would have no idea about this, as it does not directly benefit his closest friends and political contributors.