by
SETEDF | Tuesday, January 14, 2014 |
We are looking forward to a great 2014
for Beaumont and Southeast Texas! As I compose this column about the future, I
have some random thoughts to share.
Long-term unemployment insurance
ended for 1.3 million people at the end of December. I find it interesting that
most of them live in California and New York where high taxes and anti business
sentiment runs high. Regulations banning fracking and other anti-fossil-fuel
regulations abound there, as an example. Analysis of who these people really
are and why they can’t find jobs is completely missing from the news coverage.
Meanwhile, the skilled jobs opportunities along the Gulf Coast are off the
scale and will be a challenge for us for years to come.
Income inequality is a popular theme
these days, with suggestions to increase the minimum wage and to limit
corporate salaries. Here is a question for you: Since most of the jobs of the
future require a college degree or at least two years of technical education,
why not focus on tuition costs and programs to encourage higher education? An
education is
still the ticket to higher income
and mobility, but it requires hard work and a pathway that is affordable.
I will predict Beaumont ISD will be
on its way to reform in 2014, and we will have an election to provide the
opportunity for new leaders. It can only go up after 2013!
Our immigration system is broken,
and we must make reform a priority. We need to let ourcongressman know that part of the
solution is welcoming skilled and trained people to our shores. We need to keep
the graduates trained by our universities. Let’s secure our borders, revise our
laws to welcome needed labor and talent, provide a workable and reliable
national employee verification system, and provide a path with strict conditions
for the illegal immigrants to become legal.
Speaking of our congressman, I think
I will scream if I read another poll about the popularity of Congress. What
does it matter? We elect one representative and if we like him or her, they get
re-elected. If pollsters asked the respondents about their own congressman, the
results would be very different. Another poll that gets me is those comparisons
to measure the effectiveness of Congress based upon the amount of laws they
pass. Really, if you elect a group who vow less government and regulations, why
would they pass more laws? Why does anyone think the economy rests on what they
do anyway? The lessons of the Affordable Care Act as it unfolds in the coming
year and next year will be that a national one-size-fits-all solution to any
problem will not work. We have got to get back to solving our problems on a
smaller scale.
My wife refuses to use Facebook, yet
she gets upset when I know things about what is going on with her family before
she does. She is also the same person who said she would never use online
checking or provide her personal information on the Internet to buy things.
Fast forward to today and most of our bills are paid online and she bought most
of everything for Christmas via the Web. There are dramatic changes in the way
we bank and spend as consumers, and we have to consider the implications. We
will need new rules for a fair marketplace.
We will continue to focus on windstorm
insurance as one of the challenges for the area as we elect new state representatives.
We recently invited the chairman of the Insurance Committee, State Rep. John
Smithee, to town and have State Rep. Todd Hunter, who represents Corpus Christi and is the chairman of the Calendars
Committee, here on Jan. 16. We will work in the coming year to find common
ground and possible solutions to a real insurance crisis.
The Jefferson County Commissioners
Court voted on Dec. 23, 2013, to grant tax abatement to XL Systems for
construction of a new fabricated pipe and manufacturing plant in Beaumont. It
got zero news coverage but is an example of a number of expansions largely
under the radar that speak to a healthy local manufacturing future. Eastman
Forge, American Electric Technologies, and now XL Systems are three examples
and we look for some other big expansion announcements in the coming year.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The world
is all gates, all opportunities, stings of tension waiting to be struck.” Have
a great New Year!