Guest column: Texas' manufacturing industry - endless promise but not without challenges

As many of you well know, strengthening our manufacturing sector remains one of my highest priorities. A healthy manufacturing industry is the driving force behind a robust state economy.

Consider that manufacturing has the highest private sector average salary and that manufacturers fuel innovation by conducting over one-half of the research and development projects in this nation. At the height of the recent global economic recession, Texas lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs. Thankfully, however, as our economy in Texas began to rebound we were able to recover many of these jobs.

I was humbled to be appointed to the House Select Committee on Manufacturing so that I could participate in a thorough overview of this key part of our economy and its viability moving forward. We found that manufacturing in Texas benefits from many things, such as: abundant natural resources, low energy and labor costs and a regulatory climate that favors industry growth more than most states. However, manufacturing in Texas still faces many challenges as well.

Our infrastructure system is stretched thin and struggling to add the additional capacity necessary to support a healthy manufacturing industry. In water infrastructure alone it is estimated that we will experience a shortfall between industry needs and available resources as soon as 2060. Our permitting process can also be cumbersome. While attending a committee hearing in Dallas, I heard it estimated that over $60 billion in coastal manufacturing projects are currently held up in the permitting process. Then there is also Texas' business taxes to consider, which can be complicated to accurately calculate and carry expensive compliance costs.

As imperative as meeting these challenges are, the one factor that is most important to a healthy Texas manufacturing sector is the development of a workforce to meet our current and future employment needs. Experts from all across our state agree that the effects from an insufficiently skilled workforce are making it difficult to hire qualified workers despite experiencing a significant number of individuals looking for employment.

The House Manufacturing Committee report emphasized the need to develop creative solutions to our skilled workforce shortfall. In that light, I will be introducing legislation this session that will give the manufacturing industry more direct control over how the state utilizes our educational resources. My proposal would allow new manufacturing facilities coming to Texas in a competitive process to partner with public universities, community colleges, high schools and licensed career schools in providing industry driven workforce training programs. In exchange for additional funding derived from a portion of the net-new sales tax revenue that a manufacturing project generates, these educational partners would then offer the specific courses and skills training that the project would need to ready their current and future workforce needs.

After carefully considering many options, I settled on this private sector / public education model for three reasons. First, it offers an incentive for new manufacturing facilities to bring their business and their jobs to Texas. Second, it allows the manufacturing industry direct influence into the curriculum offered in the skills courses that their workforce must take. And third, it places the workforce investment directly into our proven educational systems. This way a local high school vocational program could partner with a new manufacturing facility to access the funds it would need to enhance its career training courses to meet the workforce development needs of the facility.

The most critical task for securing both our continued economic prosperity and the employment opportunities for our citizens is to better prepare our workforce with the specific skills necessary to fill many high paying jobs in Texas that are already starting to go unfilled. I look forward to addressing this challenge during this legislative session. Follow me on twitter at @tparker63 to receive periodic updates and please do not hesitate to contact me at my Capitol office at 512-463-0688 or by e-mail at tan.parker@house.state.tx.us if I can ever be of service.

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