Texas’ pro-business climate has made it an ideal place for investment. Powered by the oil boom, technology and life sciences, our economy topped more than $1.9 trillion in the fourth quarter, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, making it among the largest economies of the world.
As recently as December 2019, our statewide unemployment rate, according to the Texas Workforce Commission, was at an all-time low of 3.4%. Naturally, we assumed that all was well and that we could simply grow our way out of any problems that might come up. Our complacency, and, at times, our willingness to put politics before pragmatism, was a privilege of affluence.
But then came the COVID-19 pandemic and our forced economic timeout. As more than 1.5 million Texans lined up for unemployment, a blinding light was shone on our state’s inequities and vulnerabilities. Now, as business activity begins to resume across the state, we can no longer debate or deny their existence.
Texas needs a new playbook for our new normal, one that addresses our state’s economic soft spots and redefines who we are going forward. We shouldn’t just try re-creating the past. We have a responsibility and the opportunity to evaluate the policies that restrict our potential and subscribe to ones that will make us better able to weather shocks to our economy and our residents’s health and well-being, and allow all Texans to share in the state’s prosperity.
Achieving a more resilient and equitable future won’t be easy, but our Playbook for Resiliency, released this week, outlines detailed strategies and actions: