How the North Texas Commission supports business, local control, public schools and growth

Earlier this month, I sat down with Rachel Berhndt with the Fort Worth Report and discussed the purpose and mission of the North Texas Commission as well as the region’s advocacy needs and strategies at the state and federal levels.

Rachel, the Government Accountability reporter, asked a series of key questions in a great interview and we have provided excerpts below. If you would like to view the full article, click here.

Question: Who and what is the North Texas Commission (NTC) and how does it benefit our community?

My Answer: NTC is the region’s advocacy lead in Austin and Washington, D.C. “We bring the public and private sector leaders together within our 13-county region to address our toughest challenges and collectively work to resolve them.

Our organization stands up for local control, public schools, and works on increasing a skilled workforce pipeline–which is our top challenge in the region and state along with infrastructure and housing attainability. NTC believes the best way to tackle these challenges is to build a unified region by bringing the public and private sectors together for sustainability and inclusivity. To keep up with our rapidly growing region, we work closely with city, county, and private sector companies to ensure our area maintains six key assets to remain competitive.

1. Diversified portfolio of industries

2. A growing skilled labor force

3. An environment that is conductive and predictable to do business in

4. A rational tax system

5. Easy accessibility

6. Embracing innovation

Question: What are some key components to protecting our current and future infrastructure system?

My Answer: The greater use of public-private partnerships allows for a combination of funds and enterprise that is better in terms of speed to market, efficiency, spending less taxpayer money, and sharing risks. Our region is a great model for others – we have an integrated transportation system of choice that has proven to be successful, with more to come.

Final Thoughts from Chris Wallace: “Texas continues to be one of the best places in which to do business. We want to make sure that we keep it that way... We must ensure that Texas has an environment that will enable us to recruit talent from all over the world, to achieve that we must be fully accepting of all people. Our competitiveness is at stake. We will continue to engage business and civic leaders in the legislative process. This is what we do best.