“The government needs to create jobs” That’s something I hear all the time.

I heard an “expert” on a radio talk show the other day say that the Feds need to do a better job of creating jobs. Earlier that week I was reading story after story speaking about how the Government needs to “create” more jobs. I have a really difficult time listening to people who want our government to create jobs. I’m definitely not a history major, but we left a society where we were under a large government and taxed to death. Are we circling that same direction? I think the private sector needs to do what the private sector does… the government needs to do what the government does…and we need to keep those two things separate.Maybe it is the definition of “creating jobs” that concerns me. Does ‘create’ mean that Bills will be passed to fund projects with the government offsetting the cost? I am not at all comfortable with that idea. We need to control spending, not increase it. But maybe the term ‘create’ means that the government would offset taxes by empowering local Economic Development Corporations. Surprisingly, I am ok with this style of help.

I consider Frisco to be a model of economic growth with many parties working together. The only thing I don’t know is what happens behind the scenes and how much government (city) is affecting things. In other words, there have been rumors that a large corporation is planning to relocate one of their offices here. I guarantee that the Economic Development Corporation is going to find ways to encourage them. Years ago there was a plan for Capital One to move their offices off the tollway. They were going to build and they had narrowed it down to two locations. One was in Plano just south of 121 and the other was at El Dorado and the tollway here in Frisco. Both Plano and Frisco were very aggressive with their economic development. It was even rumored that Frisco would rename a street ’Capital One Boulevard’. Unfortunately, Capital One decided to relocate to Plano instead of Frisco. 

There is a great deal of speculation as to why they went to Plano. The current market may validate one of the possible reasons. If Capital One found themselves in a situation where they needed to sell, the speculation is that they thought the buildings built in Plano in a pre-developed area would have a better return on their investment than an area in Frisco that was still up and coming. Others speculate that some of the senior executives just wanted to live closer to their offices and they all live in Plano.

The Independent School District is the largest employer in Frisco. While that is not necessarily a bad thing, I would prefer that we had a Capital One or a Microsoft or an AT&T anchoring our community and providing jobs for our residents.

P.S – Have you heard that new companies are moving to Frisco; do you have a guess who they are?

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