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This week I will discuss the interim charges recently issued to the House Committee on Economic and Small Business Development. Interim charges are the issues that the Speaker asks committees to study during the time between regular legislative sessions in order to make recommendations for legislation for the following legislative session. The charges are good indicators of what legislation the legislature will take up during the next session. Legislators rely on public input when crafting legislation, and it is important that they hear from people during the interim.
House Committee on Economic and Small Business Development
• Review the statutes and state agency rules pertaining to public-private partnerships to ensure a fair, competitive, and transparent process that benefits all parties engaging in the partnership. Review how other states and countries utilize public-private partnerships and make recommendations on how to improve the process in Texas, specifically looking at whether there needs to be a single state entity responsible for administering the public private partnership program.
• Examine and evaluate economic development incentives to determine if the incentives are achieving the desired outcomes for which the incentives were initially established. Review which economic development goals and incentives are most important and report on methods to further improve those goals and incentives while reducing ones not meeting their desired objectives.
• Study venture capital investment in the state and determine how Texas compares to other states in attracting venture capital dollars. Make recommendations to improve Texas's ability in attract venture capital investment.
• Review the current Texas Industry Cluster Initiative to determine if the state's targeted industry clusters need to be updated to reflect changes in industry sectors that have evolved in Texas since the clusters were initially identified. The Texas Industry Cluster Initiative stimulates long-term sustained growth and focuses the allocation of state resources on key industry clusters identified to be engines of job creation and economic development in the 21st century. "Industry cluster" means a concentration of businesses and industries, such as aerospace and defense, in a geographic region that are interconnected by the markets they serve, the products they produce, their suppliers, and other associations.
• Review the Governor's Office of Economic Development and Tourism and determine its effectiveness on economic development in Texas. Determine how the office could be more efficiently coordinated with local and regional economic development entities and other state agencies to help further the economic development goals of the state.
The House Committee on Economic and Small Business Development can be reached at 512-463-0069. For more information on these charges or any other matter of state government, please contact my office by writing to P.O. Box 2910, Austin, TX 78768-2910 or by emailing me at larry.phillips@house.state.tx.us. My district office phone number is (903) 891-7297.