AUSTIN – Talmadge Heflin, Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, issued this statement today on the recent employment report from the Texas Workforce Commission:
“Although Texas’ unemployment rate remained steady in July, the Lone Star State actually added 19,900 seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs that month, for a total of 293,000 jobs added since July 2012. Either way you look at it, that’s progress. Texas continues to match or exceed the nation’s unemployment rate, as it has for 79 consecutive months.
“As it has now for over 10 years, liberty, small government, and fiscal restraint prove their case right here in Texas. The low unemployment figures and jobs-creation numbers aren’t just economic statistics: these numbers are the stories of striving entrepreneurs, diligent workers, industrious migrants, and prospering households. When we say the American Dream lives in Texas, this is the evidence – and it’s a powerful case.
“There’s more to be done to deepen and extend the benefits of freedom in our state. That’s why we strive to promote overall transparency in all fiscal matters to ensure the tax paying citizens of Texas are able to keep their hard-earned money in their pockets rather than in the state’s coffers. This allows the entrepreneurial spirit to thrive, which in turn leads to greater prosperity – the very thing that has made Texas the nation’s economic leader.”
The Honorable Talmadge Heflin is Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Heflin served 11 terms in the Texas House of Representatives and chaired the House Appropriations Committee in 2003, leading the Texas Legislature’s successful efforts to close a $10 billion budget deficit without a tax increase.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
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