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May 2005 • Volume 2, Issue 5 This issue home | Action home | Chamber home Richardson Big Winner Of Texas Enterprise Funds $70 Million In Grants Helped Lure TI, Countrywide Projects To City By leveraging its local economic development resources with state funds, Richardson has been able to capture some of the nation's top economic development plums over the past couple of years. One secret to the city's success has been the Texas Enterprise Fund, a $300 million incentive war chest, designed to lure major economic development projects. According to the governor's office, Richardson is leading the state in Enterprise Fund awards, receiving a total of $70 million since the fund's inception in 2003. In June 2003, Texas Instruments announced plans to build a $3 billion semiconductor plant in Richardson. The Enterprise Fund contributed $50 million to help seal that deal. In December 2004, a $20 million Enterprise Fund grant helped persuade Countrywide Financial to bring 7,500 new jobs to the State of Texas, with 5,000 of them targeted for Richardson. Bill Sproull, president and CEO of the Richardson Chamber of Commerce, said, "We have a superb regional business climate, but if you had to look at one thing, you would have to look at the Texas Enterprise Fund — our statewide quick-action closing fund — as the key to the TI and Countrywide deals.” The deal-closing Enterprise Fund, which is awarded to projects that have received the approval of the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the house, has been instrumental in bringing mega-size projects to the state. In addition to the Texas Instruments and Countrywide projects, recipients have included Toyota's truck-making auto plant in San Antonio, Vought Aircraft's 3,000-job plant in Dallas, Sematech's 4,000-job expansion in Austin and a 1500-job Texas Energy Center in Sugar Land. According to a number of sources, including Site Selection magazine, Texas is leading the nation in economic development projects. Gov. Rick Perry told the magazine, “The legislature’s committing $295 million to [the Texas Enterprise Fund] was a short-term difficult decision to make because of the economic situation we were in. But long term, it was very visionary relative to the job creation climate in Texas. No other state in the nation has had the type of turnaround economically that Texas has had.” The 18 Enterprise projects announced or under construction are expected to produce more than $6 billion in capital investment and more than 24,000 jobs for the state. The Fund's commitments to date have been only $212 million.
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