Austin Day 2 - Texas Department of Agriculture

Judy Fort - the Economic Development Representative for Central Texas - described the importance of the rural community and what the state was doing to help and incentivise economic growth. She said that rural communities composed 20% of Texas' population. The main problem she ran into was cities wanting money, but having no organized cohesive plan. They also wanted big companies such as Dell to move there, but Judy pointed out that their sights were set too high. They need to focus on small manufacturing opportunities in areas such as aerospace, biotech, information science, and fuel. The state will pay for infrastructure if a town has a good plan. Many small towns also build up large scale developments hoping to attract large developers or companies - but much to their chagrin, large scale efforts generally move to large cities instead of rural towns.
A saddening example was of one small town whose livelihood came from raising turkeys. Big companies called them saying their was an oversupply and they didn't need any more turkeys. People could not afford to stop working because of their mortgage payments, so they had to drive out of town to find odd jobs to sustain themselves. The state will help them with things like writing resumes, finding jobs etc but it often takes time for the change of employment to materialize.

Sherri Barron, the Program coordinator for "Certified Retirement Communities" emphasized the value of baby boomers moving to an area. The retirees increase jobs by 2 for every household in the area - this is one of the best ways to increase employment. Texas has come out of the Great Recession smelling like a rose in many people's view. It has 5 of the 10 top cities to hold out through the economic woes, and has some of the best real estate opportunities in the country. Texas is a great place for retirees who are tired of the weather problems of Florida, and the costs of California. The number one reason they come to Texas is that "the people are friendly."