How A “Typo” Resulted In A $7 Billion Corporate Welfare Program In Texas

Throughout the 90s, Texas was frequently listed as a finalist in Site Selection magazine’s annual Governor’s Cup competition which served as a proxy for how “business friendly” a state was. According to the magazine, the ranking was based upon the “Conway Project Database” and tracked the number of projects started in a state each year that met certain financial thresholds.
The Governors Cups reflect yearly project totals as tracked by the Conway Projects Database. Qualifying projects must meet one or more of these criteria for inclusion in the database: a minimum capital investment of $1 million, 20 or more new jobs created, and 20,000 or more square feet of new space.
Unfortunately, everything went awry in 2000 when, according to the Observer, the Lonestar State dipped from the top of the annual ranking to 37th in the country.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Dec 5, 2016.