AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is giving the Charles Schwab Corp. $6 million in taxpayer funds for a new office near Fort Worth.
Abbott said Tuesday the grant money from his Texas Enterprise Fund will help create 1,200 jobs over the next decade in the town of Westlake. The Republican says that makes this the biggest job-creating grant of his administration.
Abbott's predecessor, former Gov. Rick Perry, launched the Texas Enterprise Fund in 2004 as his "deal-closer" to woo businesses to Texas. State auditors have raised skepticism over claims that more than a half-billion dollars given to companies such as Facebook and Toyota have delivered on promised jobs.
Perry had already given Charles Schwab $6 million from the fund in 2014 for planned expansion in El Paso and Austin.