Lawmakers Speak Out 
Despite fears of a recession in the national economy, Lubbock officials believe the city has a bright economic future.
Floyd Price, councilman for district 2, said he believes big cities with heavy reliance on manufacturing are affected more severely by a potential recession because Lubbock’s economy is more dependant on agriculture, education and the medical industry.
“We’re blessed to be in this area because of the agriculture and the planning that our officials do for future things,” he said.
Among the growing attributes of Lubbock’s economy, Price said, are the second largest cotton crop in the south plains region and the announcement of the O’Reilly Auto Parts distribution center, which will create 400 jobs in the Hub City when it opens.
“That’s why Lubbock is doing so good where you’ve got other major cities that have major manufacturers in them,” he said. “Those big companies, in order to get away from the labor unions, they have run across the borders, overseas to other countries.”
Price said he believes the economic stimulus package will provide a needed incentive to American taxpayers and businesses to spend and boost the economy.
“Anytime that you can stimulate the market by people buying more, that’s going to put a shot in the arm of economy,” Price said, “and any time you’ve got really high percentage rates on credit cards, on houses on any commodity that you buy, that will shut down or slow down your economy, and that’s what we allowed.”
But Young Kyu Moh, an assistant professor of economics and geography at Tech, said he does not believe the package will be succesfull in stimulating the economy.
Moh said the expectation of politicians for citizens to spend their checks is inaccurate, and believes most people will choose to save rather than spend the checks.
The one sure way to improve the economy is by raising taxes, Moh said. If the government raises taxes, he believes the national debt will decline, and the economy will improve.
However, Price said the way to stimulate an economy is to give individuals and businesses incentives to spend money and expand, and believes raising taxes will have the opposite effect.
“America is built up of small businesses - mom-and-pop type business operations – and when you start taxing them, over tax them and the interest rates are going up on the things they are purchasing, and they’re still getting the same price for the commodities that they sell, you’re going to have a deficiency there in the income that these small business are getting.”
Michael Frohlich, communications director for congressman Rep. Randy Neugebauer, said the congressman, who supported the the House of Representative version of the economic stimulus package, agrees with the concept of keeping taxes low to strengthen the economy.
“When there’s more money back in the hands of the American people, the taxpayers, they’re more likely to use it to spend to keep the economy growing,” Frohlich said.
Frohlich said Neugebaur would like to see federal spending cuts as an offset to some of the money borrowed for the stimulus package, “but believes that this is a good start and a compromise.”
Though he admits the stimulus checks will not be a solution for all, Price said he believes such a bonus could be just enough to provide some taxpayers with needed relief.
“This little small money that each household gets, it may be small to someone who is pretty wealthy,” Price said, “but you take a person who is on a fixed income, on Social Security, and then, all of a sudden, they get a $500 or $600 check in the mail, they can go out and buy the things that they need.”