State Editorial Under Abbott or O’Rourke, will Texas economy thrive?

The following editorial published in the San Antonio Express-News on Oct. 7

There is no doubt the Texas economy has grown during Gov. Greg Abbott's tenure. The state consistently places at or near the top of any number of rankings as a good place to do business.

Texas' population has surged over the last decade — it gained the most residents of any state since 2010, census data show. It's been a time of mostly robust job growth. When Abbott took office as governor in January 2015, the state's unemployment rate was 4.6%. It improved throughout his tenure — with the exception of the early months of the pandemic — and was 4.1% in August.

We criticized him in March 2021, but Abbott was right to reopen the Texas economy at that time, stating, "Too many small business owners have struggled to pay their bills."

We wish he had preserved local mask mandates — there was a way to reopen while prioritizing public health — but the economic and social impacts of the pandemic were legitimate considerations. Beyond this, COVID surges occurred in states regardless of public health restrictions.

During that time and since, median housing prices for most major cities in Texas have surged, and with that increase in value has come an increase in property taxes. But housing prices have remained far more affordable than in major cities in California.

Today, the economic outlook is cloudy. The nation is flirting with a recession, inflation remains a primary concern for voters, interest rates have sharply risen, and supply chain issues persist. Texas is not immune from such pressures, but its economy is far more diverse and resilient than in decades past.

While the oil and gas industry is vital to the Texas economy, it's but one sector. The state has a growing tech presence, perhaps best represented with Tesla's decision to relocate its headquarters to Austin in 2021. Texas led the nation in 2021 with $376 billion in exports, according to the International Trade Association.

For all these reasons, we give Abbott a slight edge on economic issues over his Democratic primary challenger, Beto O'Rourke. But that doesn't mean O'Rourke's criticisms of the governor are off target. Many of his sharpest critiques are direct hits that voters, and the governor, should take into account.

Just imagine how much stronger the Texas economy would be if Abbott would expand Medicaid, not politicize the U.S.-Mexico border, truly reform the grid, bolster state spending on K-12 education, and ensure the state respects people who are LGBTQ and supports women's health care decisions.

As O'Rourke told us in an interview: "This extremism is going to undermine this extraordinary economy, an economy that was not built by Republicans or Democrats, for that matter, but by workers and entrepreneurs and the people of this state. And we're really about to lose that."

Abbott has refused to meet with us this election. If he had agreed to meet, we would ask why he would imperil an otherwise strong Texas economy. It's been estimated that his decision to inspect trucks at the U.S.-Mexico border — effectively stopping trade for about nine days — cost Texas $4.2 billion in goods and services.

In refusing to expand Medicaid, Abbott and other Texas Republicans are forgoing billions in annual federal funds while an estimated 1.4 million Texans languish without health insurance.

Business owners in Texas should never have to worry whether the grid will function during extreme weather — and yet that's exactly what happened this summer and in the failure during Winter Storm Uri.

Have the state's anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ politics kept workers and companies from relocating here? In a recent study, CNBC gave Texas an "F" in the "Life, Health & Inclusion" category.

"If we fix these things — fix the grid, restore a woman's right to make her own decisions about her own body, stop these attacks on transgender Texans and members of the LGBTQ community — we're going to be able to attract and retain talent in every form," O'Rourke said. "And that, I believe, will be the greatest driver of our economic success going forward."

O'Rourke is particularly strong when it comes to connecting these issues to economic concerns. But in our meeting, he did not speak much about traditional economic development, incentives and regulation. Abbott has sought to peg O'Rourke to past comments in support of the Green New Deal, but this is not reflective of his full views on energy.

O'Rourke has done a good job of demonstrating strong support for the oil and gas industry — while also championing clean energy sources — and has prioritized innovation. His challenge ahead is to convince voters he can build on the economic success of the past, not disrupt it.

Abbott benefits from a record of strong economic growth during his tenure. But despite this legacy, two questions linger: How much stronger could the Texas economy have been with better policies and an inclusive politics? Will today's politics, so heavy on culture wars, undercut our economic future?