Monday Morning Report
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The Council has a new email address for membership inquiries. membership@thecorridor.org . If you are a member or interested in becoming a member send an email or give us a call at 512-558-7360.
The Corridor Council Executive Committee meets tomorrow at 2:00 pm at the Council offices at 304 CM Allen Parkway, San Marcos. RSVP to council@thecorridor.org.
The Steering Committee for the Transportation Task Force also meets tomorrow at 12:00 pm at the Council offices in San Marcos. RSVP to council@thecorridor.org.
The Corridor Council Economic Development Committee will meet Thursday, January 29, beginning at 10 am. at the Council offices in San Marcos. RSVP to council@thecorridor.org or call 512-558-7360 for more information.
Infrastructure
At a meeting in Austin earlier this month, the state's eight largest metropolitan planning organizations, urban area transportation advocacy groups, Chambers of Commerce, and public transit alliances agreed that they shared three main goals for the 2009 Legislative Session: stopping diversions of fuel tax moneys into non-transportation-related spending; creating a menu of local voter-approved option taxes for new transportation revenues in the urban areas; and financing of the Texas Railroad Relocation and Improvement Fund. For details contact council@thecorridor.org.
San Antonio State Representative Ruth Jones McClendon has introduced HB 564, a companion bill to Sen. John Carona's SB 383, that would use revenues from motor vehicle usage and licensing fees to finance the Texas Railroad Relocation and Improvement Fund at $200 million per year. For a copy of the bill, click here.
Today's New York Times voices a concern of ours, namely that President's Obama's big infrastructure spending plan is too little money, too poorly focused, and comes with too many strings attached to provide real "change." Out of $850 billion in the plan only about $35 billion goes to infrastructure, "a drop in the bucket,' according to New York Plan Association president Robert Yaro. See more here. For more analysis of the Obama infrastructure package, check out Pat Driscoll's blog here.
Economic Development
Circuit City to close remaining 567 stores. The bankrupt retailer will cut 30,000 jobs, and its store closures include three locations in San Antonio and one in New Braunfels. The nation’s second-biggest consumer electronics retailer is the latest casualty of an unprecedented pullback in consumer spending.
The news was bleak from the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin and the Austin Board of Realtors. According to the market research firm Metrostudy, housing starts in 2009 will total 6,000, a 25% drop compared with the 8,000 new home starts in 2008. Through the first 11 months of the year, home sales declined 20% compared with the same period in 2007, according to ABOR data.
The San Antonio area added 11,700 private-sector jobs in the 12-month period between November 2007 and November 2008 – the 4th biggest gain in metro employment in the country – according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. All four of Texas’ major metro areas ranked among the top 10 in job creating in the last year. Austin was the 10th biggest with 6,200 new jobs. Detroit was hit with the biggest loss of jobs, 67,700 in 12 months.
Texas ranks 4th on a new list of best states to start a business compiled by U.S. News & World Report. The Lone Star State won praise for having “the most globe-focused manufacturing sector in the country, with export sales at $69,268 per worker – the highest of any state.” U.S. News also sited Texas’s lack of income or capital-gains taxes for individuals and the state’s low worker compensation costs. Texas’ fourth-place ranking fell behind No.1 Washington, Virginia and Colorado.
Americans have cut back sharply on tourism and travel spending. The U.S. Dept of Commerce reported that spending on tourism and travel dropped 8.1% in the third quarter, the largest decrease since 2001. Air transportation was at the forefront of the decline, falling more than 20% in the third quarter after a drop of 19% in the second quarter.
Three private Texas universities made Kiplinger’s Finance magazine’s 100 Best Values in Private Colleges list for 2008-09. The three universities were Rice University in Houston, Trinity University in San Antonio and Baylor University in Waco. They were ranked four, 23 and 40, respectively.
“This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.”
~ Will Rogers