Good afternoon. My name is Mike Reeser, and I have the honor of serving as Chancellor and CEO of the Texas State Technical College System. I'll be doing our welcome today. I actually wrote my remarks out, which is quite odd, but I had to do that in order to keep it in my 3-minute time limit. Otherwise, you'd hear me yammer forever about TSTC and how wonderful it is. And those folks behind you that work here, they would confirm that for you. So, welcome.
Humans, by their nature, are builders. Indeed, throughout our history, mankind has fashioned objects in our physical world to create environments that benefit ourselves and others alike. We build things. We build structures to protect us. We build machines to help us. We build all manner of objects that enable greater productivity. We build roads to carry us, data systems to hold our knowledge and communicate it. We build vehicles that carry us across the land, through the air, and even into space. The benefit of humans as builders is not merely convenience. Building creates economic prosperity. Indeed, our extraordinary economy in Texas is based in large part on the fact that we're really good at building things.
Within all disciplines of building, there is an ideal that goes beyond mere competence. That ideal is captured in the concept of craftsmanship. Craftsmanship is building for durability. It's building for utility, for steadfast quality. Craftsmanship is professional pride in worthy outcomes. Most of all, craftsmanship is building with integrity. At TSTC, we train craftsmen. Our unique characteristics help us fulfill this mission. TSTC is the only statewide college with 11 campus locations across Texas. We don't strive to be all things to all people. We specialize. As a state agency, TSTC is the only institution that focuses 100% of our efforts on the infrastructure that is critical to that enduring prosperity we commonly call the Texas miracle.
In particular, TSTC creates craftsmen in these critical strategic sectors: construction and building trades, electrical power, pipe fitting, water infrastructures, data center technologies and other IT capabilities, advanced manufacturing, industrial control systems, robotics, and welding, land transportation, and aerospace. All of these are the foundation of that Texas miracle. They also rely on builders who practice their trade in a craftsman-like manner. And in most of these sectors, TSTC enjoys the largest market share in producing graduate craftsmen for the Texas economy.
So, on behalf of those student craftsmen aspirations and the employees here who teach them and prepare them for a lucrative career in the Texas economy, I welcome everyone to this event. A celebration of craftsmanship and the prosperity it brings to us all and to our state. Welcome and thank you.
Again, as a state agency, TSTC works for the Texas Legislature who works for the taxpayers of Texas. And so, we serve the public with them as our advocates and also our caretakers. We have some of those elected officials with us today and I would love the opportunity to share with you who we have. If you would just stand and let folks acknowledge you. Senator Tan Parker is here.
Representative Angela Orr. Representative Keith Bell. Representative Pat Curry. Representative Hillary Hicklenton. Representative David Hook Cook.
Now, many may not know today is National Skills Trades Day. What an appropriate time for us to have this celebration. And for that reason, I'd like to offer a special shout-out to Chairman Keith Bell who is not only a steadfast advocate for the trades consistently everywhere, but is also a master electrician.
So, I have a Regents here today. Let's see. Ron Widdup is here, our chairman of the board. Ron. And our soon-to-be Regent Frank Denton, who we expect to take the oath of office last week. Ron is a distinguished grad of TSTC and has a career that is second to none and it all started right here on the Waco campus in electrical power and control systems. And Frank is the immediate past chairman of the plumbing board and will bring again a more trades experience to our governance and make us stronger still in an area we already lead the state in. So, thank you both for being here.
Now the good part. You know, you got me out of the way. The VIP section starting now. And so, if I could, I would like to invite Chairman Esparza up to the stage. Joe Esparza is here to moderate our fireside chat. Joe works at the intersection of economic development, growth, and readiness in representing Texas employers at the Workforce Commission. His role as chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission helped shape workforce development, labor market strategy, and the systems that support a growing economy. Join me in welcoming to the stage Chairman Esparza.
Thank you, Chancellor. Big thanks to Chancellor Reasler. Thank you. Chancellor, thank you so much for everything you do. I'm very excited to host this conversation and very excited about what we can bring to you on how we can support Texas' growth. We've all heard inspiration is there, it just has to find you working. Well, folks, Texas is working. We're hard at it. And it is my pleasure to introduce two leaders who are committed to this state. I'd like to welcome the 48th governor of Texas, honorable Governor Greg Abbott, and also chairman and CEO of BlackRock, Mr. Larry Fink.
Gentlemen, thank you all for being here. To start this conversation, we want to preface this by saying last month BlackRock announced Future Builders. It's a $100 million philanthropic initiative to train 500,000 Americans in the skilled trades over the next 5 years. That's monumental. And today BlackRock announced that $30 million of that will be put to work right here in the state of Texas.
Larry, you've said that capital alone is not enough. People are central to building our nation's future. Governor, through your leadership, Texas is exactly the kind of state where that vision has come to life. Governor, first question to you is, Texas is already leading the country in job creation and economic growth. How do you view the future of skilled trades and economic development in the state of Texas?
So, the two that you mentioned are connected. However, before I answer that, let me say two things. One is my gratitude and how much I applaud what TSTC is doing. It's truly transforming our state, transforming our country, providing the skilled workers that we need. And I must add, I am an honorary degree holder from TSTC myself. So, what happened is I kept making a comment on my original campaign trail that if the governor thing doesn't work out for me, I'm going to go to TSTC and get a degree in welding because welders get paid so much. And they wanted to make sure I got a running start on that in case that I ever did need that. So, I got the outfit, I got the degree, now I just need the paycheck and I'll be in good shape.
Second, I want to thank Larry Fink and BlackRock for what they're doing. It's a tremendous investment. It's also an acknowledgement about how important the workforce and training the workforce is to our country and to our state. And then that in a way connects with answering your question. So, you talked about two things. One is economic development and two is training the workforce. And in Texas they go hand in glove, so to speak. Texas ranks number one for economic development. Number one for the most new jobs. Number one for the creation of the need for the workforce training to train the workforce to fill all of these jobs. Texas added more jobs than any state over the past year since COVID and since the past decade. There is more demand for skilled workforce in the state of Texas because of all the jobs that are coming here.
This morning before I left Austin, Texas, I visited with two CEOs of two large companies that are in the Fortune 50. Both of whom are working to bring projects and jobs here. In the Texas Economic Development Office, we have more than 400 projects in our pipeline that will be coming here, growing here, adding more jobs here. So, we have the formula in place far better than any other state in America to be able to attract and land jobs and land businesses and grow our economy faster and better than any other state.
Core to being able to achieve that mission going forward is going to be cultivating and educating the skilled workforce that we need. We took a tour around here earlier and got a feel for the training that goes into place for electricians. Electricians alone, I hear we need something like 10,000 of them in the state of Texas as we speak right now, even more in the future. I learned that the number one skilled demand for TSTC is for welders. And there's a long list, whether they be pipe fitters going to everything to people training in cybersecurity. It almost does not matter what the skill set is, there is extraordinary demand for it. And so, I'm just very grateful that we have organizations and education platforms like TSTC as well as other education platforms we have in the state of Texas to ensure that Texas is doing more than just leading in job creation and attracting businesses, but leading as it concerns educating those students.
Know this, with the leadership of these legislators who are sitting here today, over the past two sessions, Texas led America in investing more than $8 billion to fund career and technical education in the state of Texas. We put our money where our needs are to make sure the state is doing everything we can to fully educate the workforce of tomorrow. So, thank you to the legislature for your leadership in getting that across the finish line.
Mr. Fink, Larry. First of all, thank you. We're here to talk about Future Builders. Tell us what drove it and also how you see Texas as a place where this kind of investment in people can have the greatest impact.
Well, thanks, Joe. Governor, it's great to be with you today. I just wanted to say before I answer the question, what I heard from the governor is music to my ears. We need more political leadership who could drive economic prosperity. And the only way we could make capitalism work is making capitalism working for more people to broaden our economy. And you know, we manage more money than any firm in the world. And our job is making sure that we are building prosperity and dignity for more Americans and more people in the world. And we need more political leadership who are focusing ahead on building economic prosperity. So, Governor, thank you for those words. They inspire me. So, let me just start there.
It was a very easy thing for our foundation to think about how can we help out? As one of the largest investors, we're actually the largest infrastructure investor in America. We own airports and ports. We are one of the largest infrastructure investors in Texas. Let me also speak on a major statistic that most people don't know. We manage $155 billion for Texans. Your hard money, we manage $155 billion. For institutions, for individuals. And it is my pledge to all of you we are doing every day understanding the responsibility we have to making sure we're doing the job on behalf of all of you.
But two, probably the most important thing that is I hope it's music to the governor's ears. So, we manage $155 billion of Texan money. We actually are importing to Texas $500 billion. So, you know, so we are managing 155, but we're bringing $500 billion of investments back into Texas. Whether that's investing in your great public companies, investing in your municipality debt, investing in infrastructure. And we are, as I said, in pipelines, in working alongside great companies who are part of Texas. And so, that is And I would say there's no other state that we have that big of investment in any state. And that's just a reflection on the economic prosperity of the state of Texas.
So, as the largest investor in infrastructure, we hear in every project, we don't have enough workers. We can't find the workers. We're challenged. We're going to have delays. When you have delays in your projects, that means it costs more money. And so, as a mechanism to think about how to make these investments work over the long run, and also how to think about these investments. How do we broaden economic prosperity? How do we make sure that more people are benefiting for these projects? And it was very clear to us that we needed to think about not just investing in projects. Investing in projects is something we do pretty well. But we now we had to think and rethink how we think. We now needed to find ways to investing in people in their own personal growth.
And what's so exciting about future builders, when we're investing in young people, we're investing in young people who are just thinking about where should they go? Should they even go to a four-year university or not? What is the pros and cons on that? And as the governor was talking about in welders and the shortage and electricians, I hear that in every state. And then on top of that, we looked at okay, where and who can we give our foundation money to to work this out? And TSTC was a clear leader in this and it was a pretty easy decision by our foundation board to say this is where the first allocation of this capital will be.
I will also tell you and one of the great things that hasn't been announced yet, I actually believe many more companies are going to join BlackRock in building out future builders. So, we don't hear about we're going to have delays in our projects because we don't have enough workers. We're going to make sure we have a number of workers. We're going to make sure that we're building more prosperity. We're broadening economic success for more Americans. And by broadening economic success for more Americans, we're going to build greater dignity and hope for more people in this country.
Thank you, Larry. All right, good. Governor, let's take that resource and put it to work. Texas leads the nation in job creation and early this year you released your bigger, better Texas strategic plan, which outlines your view on economic development across the state. What is most important to Texas's growth and how do you plan to keep the momentum going?
Talk about momentum. Well, there's several ways to keep the momentum going and to keep Texas being a magnet that will attract businesses as well as workers to our state. Number one among them, while I have members of the legislature here, is one way we can make Texas the most affordable state in the United States is to implement my plan to slash your property taxes in half and allow you to be able to afford to live in your own home and never be taxed out of your own home.
Second is we want to make sure that we are attracting the best and brightest to participate in all of our programs and we find ways to match skills with employers as well as those who want to be employees. That's why I created the Jobs Council Advisory Council earlier this year and we've taken that show on the road around the state. This is a unique combination that really has never occurred before in the history of Texas and that is we bring together business leaders across the state, those who are employers, and we also match them with labor leaders, those who are providing the employees, especially the skilled workforce. This needed desperately as we are building out a more diversified economy that we have in the state.
And one thing that I know that the legislature has and I have and that is the commitment to make the investments and to take the legislative action that's needed to advance that workforce. What we don't have expertise in, per se, is precisely how do we train those employees with the exact skill set that employers are looking for. And there really is no better place to look at than two places. One is with the labor leaders in our state who provide their own training and who are providing that training for what the employers are hiring for and then obviously with the employers themselves. And this works extraordinarily well and what the Jobs Council is going to be doing is listing getting all the details from all the employers and all the labor leaders in the state and then hammering out exactly what we need to pass in the next session to ensure Texas truly will be the leader in the United States for workforce.
One thing I know that some labor organizations in the state of Texas already do quite well is to have apprenticeship programs. So in the state we'll have programs like TSTC. We'll have two-year college programs and four-year college programs. But separate from that and in addition to it we have apprenticeship programs. Apprenticeship programs that the state funds. And one example about how this works so incredibly well I went out to a work site for SMB Constructors and Engineers in the Baytown area. And I got to meet the leader of that apprenticeship program. She was an African-American woman who was telling me all the elements about the program and then she showed me who the apprenticeship learners were.
I was kind of surprised to be honest that most of the apprenticeship learners in the program were women. And most of them were doing welding. And I got to talk to more of the woman I was talking to and she explained that for herself it had changed her life because four years before that she said she was homeless. And now she owns her own home. So I said, 'So you went from being homeless to owning your own home, working your way up to this apprenticeship program. How much are you making?' And she told me and I said, 'So you were homeless four years ago. Today you're making more than the governor of Texas.' But it shows how transformational these programs can be whether it be an apprenticeship program or a TSTC whatever.
It's transformative for the worker being able to take home a six-figure paycheck and transformative for the employer able to add the workers they desperately need to build their projects and transformative for the state of Texas keeping us the economic engine of the United States of America. So we're looking to bring harmony to all three of those elements that keep Texas first and foremost.
Right. So much of the discussion has been on investment and what we've talked about today centers around investment in infrastructure and we've mentioned this. Both in terms of our roads, bridges, as well as investing in people and that's what Future Builders is. Governor, you've positioned Texas as a leader in energy, in AI and manufacturing. When you both look at the scale and the magnitude of what needs to be built, where does Texas fit into that picture and why should Texans be optimistic?
Right. So we're optimistic because Texas is situated unlike some other states. We're optimistic because we're growing faster than other states. There are other states who've enacted policies that are causing people to leave those states. You know them in your head. You got California, New York, Illinois and there are others. I'll tell you something what a lot of people don't know. A lot of people know that Texas is the state that more people move to than any other state. A lot of people will guess correctly the number one state that people are moving from which is California. Unless you happen to stumble upon this factor or hear me talk before, you wouldn't know what the number two state it is because most people would think the number two state people are coming from when they come to Texas is New York or Illinois, both of which would be good guesses, but surprisingly the number two state that people are coming from is from the state of Florida. The point is very simply this, it doesn't matter where in the country you are, people are coming here, and so the opportunity we have is vast because Texas is growing.
That said, at the same time that opportunity presents challenges to us for what we must do going forward with regard to infrastructure. I'll tell you four areas we have to concentrate on. One is power, you can call it electricity, whatever words you want to put to it. We need more power. I'm assuming most people here are from Texas. You remember Winter Storm Uri, things like that. Let me tell you something that most people do not know. And that is since Winter Storm Uri, which was 5 years ago, Texas has added far more power than any other state in the United States of America. We've added 61,000 megawatts of new power. That may mean nothing to anybody here. Let me tell you what it did. We increased by more than half the amount of power that we had in 2021 to where we are now. And we're adding more power daily than any other state. Today, Texas now generates more electricity than the second and third states combined. So, once again, Texas is a leader, but still, once again, we're not where we need to be for the years going forward. So, bottom line, we have to add more power.
Second, because of the people coming here, because of the growth that we have, because of the businesses here, we have a great need to access more water. Again, the legislature delivered, the people delivered it at the voting booth when they approved a $20 billion investment to ensure that we will have the water infrastructure needed for generations to come. Half of that $20 billion is to identify and bring online what are categorized as new sources of water. The other half is to help repair broken and leaking pipes. In the city of Houston alone, they lose about 30 billion gallons of water a year. Just fixing Houston pipes alone would almost be like a huge new source of water. So, we must address our water demand and ensure that we have the supply that matches it.
Next is transportation infrastructure. There are more vehicles on the road, more needs for the roadways, things like that. Listen, the Texas road fund, which operates on a 10-year basis. We have more money in just our road building fund than most states have as their entire budget. We have $147 billion just in a transportation fund to build new roads and transportation, highways and byways going forward. No state can match that. And then the fourth thing that we desperately need and that we're working on is more housing. The good news is this. Once again, Texas ranks number one for building more housing than any other state. But at the same time, we know that we are still in need of having even more housing built in order to meet the demands of our residents here in the state of Texas. So, we're working on all of those four elements, but I cannot emphasize enough none of that's done by getting up here and giving a speech. What gets it done are these members of the Texas Legislature who share that commitment, who share the understanding of the challenges that we face, and they knew last session, and they delivered, and they know as we're going into this next session, the high bar that we must meet if we're going to be able to continue to deliver for the people of our state. I know they will once again get that job done this next session.
It's great. Larry, let's talk globally. You've said the world will need as much as 68 trillion dollars in new infrastructure investment by 2040. That's trillion with a T now. Where do you see the biggest need for infrastructure investment when it comes to around the world?
Let me just highlight the United States. In the next 10 years, the US alone needs over 10 trillion dollars of investing in infrastructure. And the key is how is that going to be Where does the money going to be coming from? And the key is and the beauty of the United States and the vitality of the United States, more foreigners want to bring their money to the United States and that is a real indication of the US exceptionalism versus so many other places. So, we still remain to be a great destination.
But I believe much of this money is going to come from average savings accounts and investment accounts. It is important that we build more and more confidence with more and more of our population to grow with the United States. Keeping money in just a bank account, you're not growing with your economy. You're not growing with the United States. So, we need to instill more confidence why investing over the long run, investing in the long run in Texas or throughout the United States, you will do far better as an investment vehicle than you would be in keeping your money in a savings account at a bank. Yes, that's safety and all that and we all have I'm not trying to say we don't have to have rainy day funds and all that. But if we could get more and more Americans to think about growing with the United States, we will have far than enough money to invest in this infrastructure.
But as the governor was talking about the need for electrons is growing every day. Some of these you know, if we're going to be the leader in technology, which we are, if we are going to be the leader in AI, which we presently are, it's just going to require trillions of dollars of investments. And if we don't invest in it China will be the global leader in this. And so to me it's not whether this is a must. And if you think about how that translates, it translates into a more dynamic economy. We need the United States economy to grow at over 2%. We need the US economy to grow at 3%. Especially with the growing deficits the federal government has. And so much of this money, not just the private is going to be coming from the private sector. From savings accounts, from pension accounts, from insurance companies on and on and on.
The whole world is in need of improving the infrastructure. You know, the governor talked about power in Texas and the doubling of power here in Texas. But when you think about the United States, we have not invested in our power grids in the country as much as it needs. And what I worry about that we're not investing fast enough. And in some states we have too many restrictions, too many permitting problems. And one of the biggest reason why Texas remains to be one of the great destinations, the capital. The ease of putting that money to work. And then on top of that, now investing in the people of Texas, it's a happy environment. I can't say that about a lot of places in the United States or all the places in the United States. And so the trillions of dollars going to be needed to create the vitalities that our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren will have the same opportunities that we have had or we will have.
And to me, it's going to come from the private sector. We can't just rely on the federal government, the state governments to finance it. And I do believe what we're going to see more and more public-private investing together, cooperating together with state and local governments to build out this infrastructure. When you think about housing, as the governor talked about housing, actually in the United States today, we have the oldest housing stock of houses in the United States and we've had in 50 years. We are not investing enough in housing. And that is why housing prices have gone up faster than inflation, why affordability housing remains to be one of the central themes in the United States today. But I do believe we're going to be able to solve these problems because we talk about these problems and if we direct we talk about these problems, we can direct more capital to help more of these needed areas to build America's future vitality.
Thank you both. Just a single statement to answer this question, what does success look like in 5 years, Governor?
Texas being number one for the most jobs, number one for the best economy. And by definition, that would mean number one for the best workforce in the United States.
Well, I'm an avowed capitalist. We need to make capitalism work for more people. We need to make capitalism and I'm worried about some of the younger generations where they're questioning that. I mean, in so many surveys that is a big question. Those are frightening things for me. I mean, the alternative from my perspective is not the right outcome by any means. We have government, state, and local governments that believe that socialism is and some form of that is a better outcome. So, as an avowed capitalist, I need to commit to myself over the next 5 years, we are going to make sure that we're making capitalism work for more Americans, period.
