Gilbert Says Greening Texas Economy Will Help Stop State Bleeding Jobs

TYLER—Responding to numbers released this morning by the Texas Workforce Commission indicating the state’s unemployment rate rose to 8 percent in August with an overall loss of 62,200 jobs, Hank Gilbert (D-Whitehouse) said “greening” the state’s economy was part of his plan to create more jobs in Texas.

“For decades, Texas has been bleeding manufacturing jobs. In my part of the state, one of the manufacturers, Carrier, recently sent Texas jobs to Monterrey, Mexico. That is happening across the state. Traditional manufacturing jobs are disappearing south of the border where labor is cheap and the quality of life is low,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert, a Democratic candidate for Texas Governor, said creating “green” jobs was part of the answer to Texas’ unemployment crisis.

“It is time to invest more money in renewable energy and green manufacturing. As a state, we must do more to attract green manufacturing. Texas needs programs to re-train our highly-skilled manufacturing employees who have become unemployed to work in green energy and green manufacturing jobs,” he said.

Gilbert said Texas should spend more to attract green industry, too.

“Green industry jobs are higher paying jobs because they require more skill. Instead of Governor Perry using his economic development slush funds to reward campaign contributors and political allies who bring jobs to Texas that pay only slightly better than minimum wage, we should use that money to bring green industry and more green energy to Texas,” Gilbert said.

“This is another example of Governor Perry’s failure to anticipate an economic decline and prepare for it. What makes this doubly galling is his decision to reject stimulus money for unemployment benefits and instead borrow funds from the Federal Government to meet the gap in unemployment funding. It’s time to put an end to political decisions that end up costing Texas taxpayers far more in the long run.”

Gilbert also called on Congress to immediately pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

REFRENCES: Hank Gilbert lives in Whitehouse, near Tyler. Tyler’s Carrier air conditioning plant announced last year that it would transfer some of its operations to Mexico. (Source: Tyler Morning Telegraph).