The special Texas House committee appointed by Speaker Joe Straus to scrutinize Gov. Perry’s job-luring pots of money – chiefly the Texas Enterprise Fund – got down to work last Wednesday. In its first hearing, the House Select Committee on Economic Development Incentives listened to expert witnesses for and against the incentives that were called everything from “interstate job piracy” to essential “tools in the toolbox” for continuation of the state’s dynamic economic growth.
Chair of the committee, Rep. Angie Chen Button, R-Richardson, stressed that while Texas has been a dominant