One of many government programs that many Texans have no clue exists is the Texas Enterprise Fund. Millions of tax dollars are distributed from this program, yet it never receives much attention from the public. The program is administered via the Office of the Governor and according to the website:
“The Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) awards “deal-closing” grants to companies considering a new project for which one Texas site is competing with other out-of-state sites. The fund serves as a performance-based financial incentive for those companies whose projects would contribute significant capital investment and new employment opportunities to the state’s economy.”
Their definition is chock full of bureaucrat euphemisms such as “deal closing grants” and “performance-based financial incentive” but TFR is not afraid to call those euphemisms what they really are – corporate welfare. These subsidies are given to many large corporations at the expense of both taxpayers and small businesses. As a matter of fact, according to the guidelines established under the TEF, small businesses are explicitly excluded from getting any of the corporate welfare. Rules to be eligible include:
- The site must be in competition with other state corporate welfare programs
- Must include 25-75 full-time employees
- The company must operate in an “advanced industry
Just based on these guidelines alone, most small businesses are immediately ruled out from consideration. These are businesses that not only help contribute taxes to help pay this corporate welfare but also were many of the same types of businesses that were shut down (many permanently) in the wake of executive orders and directives administered by Texas Governor Greg Abbott himself in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since its inception in 2004, the Texas Enterprise Fund has given out $700,000,000 in corporate welfare to large, small business crushing, corporate entities. This includes mega-corporations like:
- Raytheon
- Home Depot
- JP Morgan Chase
- Bank of America
- T-Mobile
- Lockheed Martin
- Caterpillar
- 3M
- Visa
- Apple
- Merck
- and Many, Many More
Many of these companies such as Facebook have been caught both canceling conservative voices and donating to opponents of conservatives. Facebook also actively helped advocate against former President Trump in the 2020 election. Why is Texas giving your tax dollars to ‘woke’ corporations that actively oppose your values? The same government that put many small businesses out of business, making it nearly impossible for many hard-working Texans to put food on the table, is giving welfare to multibillion-dollar corporations that don’t need a dime from taxpayers.
TFR asserts that this immoral and unjust program must be eliminated forever so that taxpayers are not forced to fund their own demise. Corporate welfare is a socialistic idea that harms free enterprise, harms taxpayers, and harms small businesses. No politician that calls themselves conservative should continue to allow the Texas Enterprise Fund to remain in existence.
