By ERIN MULVANEY / Austin Bureau Dallas Morning News emulvaney@dallasnews.com
AUSTIN — Two-thirds of the companies given taxpayer money from the job creation fund that Gov. Rick Perry has touted as a key reason for Texas’ economic growth failed to meet their promises last year, a study released today finds.
In a study released Wednesday, the progressive watchdog group Texans for Public Justice compared Texas Enterprise Fund contracts to compliance reports that were filed in the governor’s office in 2009. Of the 50 companies that were given a combined $368 million to create or maintain 49,581 jobs by the end of last year, six were terminated, 13 failed to meet promises and 14 were amended to lower job targets or postpone deadlines.
The new study shows a jump from the group’s 2008 study of the fund that showed 42 percent of those companies it reviewed failing to meet their target.
As of June 17, enterprise fund companies were fined $2.8 million by the governor’s office for failing to meet goals. That amounted to 2 percent of the $116 million in state money they had received from the fund so far, the report states.
The Texas Enterprise fund was created in 2003 as a “deal-closing” fund to create new jobs in Texas. The governor, the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the House approve the projects, but the governor’s office can make amendments to the original deals.
The governor’s website says, “The fund has vastly expanded the state’s economic development tools, and as a result, Texas now has one of the best economic environments in the nation.”
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to the study, but the Texas Enterprise Fund website says that to date the fund has brought more than 52,000 new jobs to the state and generated more than $14.3 billion in capital investment. The report has evidence that about 31,000 jobs have been created under the fund, or 56 percent of the claim.
Andrew Wheat, spokesman for Texans for Public Justice, said that because the fund is a centerpiece of Perry’s gubernatorial campaign, there is an overwhelming desire to present it as successful.
“When the facts turned against the portrayal it didn’t change the need to portray it as a success,” Wheat said. “Because of the recession, we need jobs now and need them today.”
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