TAM Principles
TAM positions are rooted in the Association’s policy principles designed to protect and grow high quality jobs.
Our principles encompass energy, environmental policy, taxes, transportation, workforce development, civil justice and employer issues.
ENERGY
Manufacturers are by far the largest consumers of electricity in the State of Texas. The rising cost of energy continues to play a pivotal role in capital investment location decisions across the nation and the globe.
TAM supports:
- The development of market-based energy sources that will provide Texas with reliable and competitively-priced energy.
- An appropriate sharing of transmission infrastructure costs between producers and consumers of electricity.
- Streamlining the environmental permit processes to allow for more timely expansion of cost-effective electricity and other energy supplies.
- Allowing market-based, cost-effective resources, including load response, to compete in electricity markets.
- Rededicating the “System Benefit Fund” for its statutory purpose or eliminating it.
- Effective oversight over the rates and services of monopoly electric utilities, which may include generation, transmission and/or distribution.
- Requiring accurate consumer cost fiscal notes for all energy related initiatives and proposals.
TAM opposes:
- Favoring certain energy technologies over others through the use of mandates or subsidies.
- Mandated capacity markets that create unwarranted wealth transfers from electric consumers to generators.
- Allowing monopoly utilities to increase rates without comprehensive rate reviews and effective oversight.
- Taxes and fees on energy consumption.
- Increasing bureaucracy or regulatory burdens that will inhibit the efficient development of competitive energy sources.
ENVIRONMENT
TAM believes being pro-business and pro-environment are not mutually exclusive policy objectives. Texas manufacturers have been working diligently over several decades to improve air quality in Texas and are leading innovators in technologies to protect and improve the environment.
AIR
TAM supports:
- Maintaining current, ongoing initiatives which have dramatically improved air quality in Texas and do not interfere with enforcement of existing, effective state and federal air quality standards.
- Encouraging continued industry investment in technologically and economically feasible emission reduction solutions through market-driven measures rather than mandates.
- Maintaining automobile fleet turnover programs such as Low-Income Repair Assistance Program (LIRAP) that promote cleaner automotive usage and dramatically reduce mobile emissions.
- Maintaining cost-effective programs like Texas Emissions Reduction Plan (TERP) that are critical to reduce air emissions.
- Making air quality attainment requirements feasible to avoid unrealistic plans that risk Texas transportation funding, halt road construction and accelerate manufacturing job loss and relocation.
- Promoting market-driven efforts and incentives to sequester CO2.
- Keeping Texas competitive with other state's environmental permitting timeframes for manufacturing facilities, by adopting a more efficient public participation process for permitting actions which allows for adequate, legitimate public input.
WATER
TAM supports:
- Promoting market-based solutions to meet the state’s water needs by proportionally distributing any costs in developing water infrastructure statewide among all users.
- Promoting water reuse incentives and sustainability initiatives developed in collaboration with innovative manufacturing partners to reduce the burden on the proposed water infrastructure.
WASTE
TAM supports:
- Broad-based, comprehensive solutions to solid waste reduction
TAXES/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Manufacturing has been an important contributor to economic growth and tax receipts at all levels of government, contributing one-third of all corporate taxes collected by state and local governments. Texas must maintain tax incentives that support Texas manufacturers with the ultimate goal of making Texas more competitive in attracting new manufacturers, sustaining existing manufacturing and creating new jobs for Texans.
TAM supports:
- Maintaining the structural integrity of Texas’ margins tax while seeking legislative and administrative technical changes and/or clarifications to create greater clarity and fairness in the new business tax.
- A competitive business tax environment in all state and local taxes that is broad-based and fairly distributed.
- The reestablishment of a tax incentive for research and development (R&D), capital investment, and job creation.
- Keeping Texas on the competitive cutting edge to attract manufacturers and grow jobs, by renewing the Texas Economic Development Act agreements under Chapter 312 and 313 of the Tax Code; renewing the Texas Enterprise Fund and Texas Emerging Technology Funds.
- Keeping Texas competitive with other state's environmental permitting timeframes for manufacturing facilities, by adopting a more efficient public participation process for permitting actions which allows for adequate, legitimate public input.
TAM opposes:
- Attempt to further distinguish tax roles of residential and commercial entities, such as appraisal caps.
- Increases in local option sales taxes beyond the current cap.
TRANSPORTATION
The manufacturing sector depends on a reliable and efficient multi-modal transportation system in order to move goods.
TAM supports:
- Promoting a market-driven, cost-effective transportation infrastructure that allows efficient and competitive transport through seaports, land ports, roads, railroads and pipelines of Texas.
- Expediting the permitting process to include timely response to permitting requests so manufacturing construction and investment can move forward in a reasonable and timely manner.
- Encourage expeditious flow, which improves the environment, promotes efficiency and benefits consumers through reduced costs.
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Modern manufacturing has diversified and manufacturers are clamoring for qualified workers with a variety of specialties, from welders to engineers, process managers to pipe fitters, and risk analysts to chemists. Texas manufacturers are struggling to fill high-quality, high-paying jobs that require a range of education and training including technical certificates, associate’s, bachelor’s or master’s degrees or PhDs.
TAM supports:
- Fostering an effective, efficient and standards-based education system that meets the needs of the Texas manufacturing industry and its wide array of employment opportunities.
- Providing an incentive to public school districts, public and private universities, community colleges and technical schools to increase the number of graduates in critical fields such as engineering, math, science and career and technologies.
- Encouraging rigorous yet flexible high school graduation pathways that lead to post-secondary success; including accountable and relevant programs to meet diverse manufacturing workforce needs.
- Providing relevant and meaningful education opportunities for high school students who may not plan to attend a four-year university.
- Ensuring that the state public education system supports and rewards local school districts wishing to offer career and technology courses that help meet their local employment demands.
- Ensuring that career and technology courses offered by school districts contain applied math and/or science components and qualify for credit for math and/or science toward flexible degree plans.
- Ensuring that career and technology courses offered by school districts with applied math and/or science components are offered as an alternative course to the existing 4x4 plan and not as “enrichment” electives.
LAWSUIT REFORM AND EMPLOYER ISSUES
Texas Association of Manufacturers and its members are committed to sustaining economic growth and defending against attempts to rollback more than two decades of landmark legal reform.
TAM supports:
- A fair and equitable civil justice system that promotes a sound business environment capable of attracting and retaining manufacturing jobs.
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