Pointing to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts’ (CPA) estimated $27 billion surplus, members of the North Texas Commission (NTC) have outlined legislative priorities and are sharing them with stakeholders across a 15-city constituency.
NTC’s President and CEO Chris E. Wallace, alongside subject matter experts, spoke Wednesday about five priority areas, such as a reliable infrastructure that includes connectivity across the state.
Support of broadband as a utility falls under the “Infrastructure” heading, ensuring a “reliable and sustainable infrastructure development, including the electric grid, domestic energy production, mobility, water resources and broadband,” according to presentation documents.
Wallace said that “we have to treat that as a utility. We take electricity for granted. We take water for granted. We need to make sure that broadband is right there. We were at the city council meeting yesterday in Fort Worth making a presentation on these priorities, and several council members said that broadband has to be a basic utility, just like water and electricity."
The full list of priorities:
- Education and Workforce
- Health and Well-Being (including telehealth)
- Business Competitiveness (including IT modernization, cryptocurrency and blockchain)
- Local Government
- Infrastructure (including energy reliability)
Patrick Brophey is the NTC senior director of stakeholder relations and legislative planning, and his area of expertise covers primary education, local government and broadband.
“I think we certainly would like to see more funding for broadband development. We know that,” he said and referenced that broadband had “broad coalition of support” and had a lot of momentum out of the 87th Legislature due to pandemic response and pivots.
“We got a lot of early wins, a lot of momentum. We were proud to see that push behind it,” Brophey continued. “What can be kind of easy or enticing is to say, ah, broadband’s fixed now, but the establishment of [the state broadband office] was just the beginning.
“We're getting proper mapping, we're getting an understanding of where the challenges are, where those holes are in more remote areas, and then what we need to do to address them. But certainly, if we can get increased funding, more resources, more manpower in that office, I think that bodes well for the state and making sure we close every single digital divide.”
Under the “Business Competitiveness” heading, the commission supports IT modernization efforts “across government agencies to reduce administrative burdens, increase efficiency, enhance transparency and provide cost savings to businesses and taxpayers.”
Another item mentioned in the meeting was Texas Tax Code Chapter 313, which “allows school districts to temporarily limit a property’s appraised value to encourage business investment within their borders,” according to the CPA. Chapter 313 is set to expire this year.
One example of a company coming to the state with the 313 incentives was Tesla, according to the CPA. Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas in Travis County is a $1.1 billion factory and is estimated to bring 5,000 jobs to the area by 2023.
Answering the question, “What is the prognosis should 313 lapse,” Wallace responded that “I think we will start losing projects to other states, other countries. … But the Legislature has to allow these tools.”
The presentation closed on a high note, with a reminder the state has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fund multiple initiatives due to the budget surplus.
“The good news again is we have a $27 billion surplus, and [the comptroller] may revise that upward — we understand — before January, so we may have even more that we can use to allocate,” Wallace said. “In my history in many, many sessions ... the hardest time to legislate is when you have the most money. You have 140 days in which to do it, which is really, really, really, really hard.”
The nonprofit NTC is a member-supported organization that works to unify the region and promote it as an “excellent place to live and do business.” It was founded in 1972.
