MCALLEN, Texas - Texas Transportation Commissioner Alex Meade has explained why the Rio Grande Valley is unlikely to land an auto manufacturer, at this moment in time.
Meade is a former city manager of Pharr and a former CEO of Mission Economic Development Corporation. He spoke about his role as a state transportation commissioner in a speech at "Building the Valley – Uniting for RGV Regional Growth.” The conference was hosted by the Institute for Leadership in Capital Projects.
“The Judge mentioned that I would say something about incentives, and we had a conversation about recruiting automotive companies. You know, every city and every economic development developer talks about recruiting an automotive company, right? That's what you want. Why? Because it brings the tier one, tier two and the tier three suppliers, which create a lot of jobs,” Meade explained.
The judge Meade was referring to was Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez, who had just spoken at the event.
Meade continued: “Now, unfortunately, to recruit an automotive company today, the average incentive, upfront incentive, cash incentive, is $90 million. That is the average now. Over the period of 20 years it ends up being a total of close to $500 million. Now, what city, what region, what county, has $90 million today in their cash account, in their general fund, that they can just write a check, still operate the city the way they normally would, but be able to cut a check for $90 million?
“You start to see those things, and you start realizing that, you know what, as much as we would like an automotive company, we can't get an automotive company.
“Yet, we spent a lot of time traveling to conferences and attending all these meetings, still thinking that we could be that entity, to recruit that company.”
What the Valley should be doing, Meade said, is going after the suppliers to the big manufacturing firms. He said the Valley has a good track record at this.
“We've done a really good job in having suppliers. If you look at the density of suppliers that we have in the Rio Grande Valley, a lot of it has to do with electronics and medical device manufacturing. But it is one of these things that we've done very well. We need to continue building that density. If we build up that density, we'll be able to recruit the larger corporations, like other cities are doing.”
Meade later told the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service: “The Rio Grande Valley can land an automotive company once it is financially capable. But it's probably not the best use of our money right now.”
Editor’s Note: Here is an exclusive video recording of Alex Meade’s presentation at the I-LinCP conference:
