What is the Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF)?
At Gov. Rick Perry’s request, the 78th Texas Legislature established the Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) in 2003 to help attract new jobs and investment to the state. The fund was reauthorized by the Legislature in 2005, 2007, and 2009. As the largest “deal-closing” fund of its kind in the nation, the TEF continues to attract businesses to Texas. The fund is used only as a final incentive tool where a single Texas site is competing with another viable out-of-state option. Additionally, the TEF will only be considered to help close a deal that already has significant local support behind it from a prospective Texas community. What projects are considered for the TEF? Projects that are considered for the TEF must demonstrate a significant rate of return on the public dollars being invested in the project. Additionally there are several primary measures that every TEF project must meet in order to be considered for an award. Those include but are not limited to the following: • Competition wi
