Legislative Messages of Hon. James V. Allred, Governor of Texas 1935-1939 Page: 13 of 263
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-14
Texas.
We want industrial development, rural industrial communities,
real subsistence homesteads, finer farms, more factories and manufacturing
institutions. We can get them if we will go after them.
Texas Planning Board
It is rather difficult for the Governor, alone, as the representative of
the State, with the many duties already imposed upon him, to find and
secure the maximum benefits to which our State is entitled. In order,
therefore, that our recovery efforts may be really coordinated with those
of the National Government, I deem it advisable to urge the Legislature
to create a State Planning Board. The National Government has heretofore
suggested that the states take such a step, and a number of other
states have already set up planning boards.
In my judgment, this board should be charged with the duty of investigating
and determining all available sources of Federal aid for development
of our State or its subdivisions, and for furnishing and providing
employment in worth while projects. It should be given the power
and duty of formulating a comprehensive program for state development
and rehabilitation. Such an agency should give particular consideration
to the conservation of our natural resources, to the prevention of soil
erosion and to public works projects. For this purpose, it should formulate
plans to encourage the best use of available Federal funds. Such agency
should be utilized to formulate a housing, rural rehabilitation and slum
clearance program. These latter projects are already under way in a
number of other states where remarkable and worth while progress has
been made.
To those who, at first impulse, might oppose such a plan, on the general
proposition that they are opposed to the creation of additional boards,
I would say that at this time we have no legal board which could logically
perform these duties. In the absence of legislative authority for an official
board, the retiring Governor many months ago, appointed an unofficial
board to represent her and coordinate State efforts with the National
Government. This board has performed fine service, but its members represent
to me that it is very unsatisfactory in view of the fact that they
have no legal or official status.
It is my judgment that no salary should be provided for the members
of a state planning board. Some of the finest services ever rendered to
Texas have been at the hands of outstanding citizens serving as members
of honorary boards without compensation. The members of the present
unofficial boards have been paying their own traveling expenses in coming
to Austin and going elsewhere on official business; and I respectfully
submit that it is manifestly unfair for them to continue to make such
sacrifice.
I therefore respectfully submit for emergency consideration this proposal
to create a Texas Planning Board. In my judgment, its immediate creation
will facilitate the recovery march in Texas and before the end of
the Regular Session of this Legislature it will prove to have been invaluable.
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Allred, James V. Legislative Messages of Hon. James V. Allred, Governor of Texas 1935-1939, book, 1939; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth3899/m1/13/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .