HB 4751 – Corporate Welfare Expansion

HB 4751 creates a new taxpayer-backed initiative to promote the quantum computing industry in Texas. It establishes an executive committee and a new fund to coordinate research and investment efforts and award grants to public institutions and private businesses. While the bill aims to make Texas a leader in emerging technologies, it does so by expanding the bureaucracy within the Office of the Governor, adding new staff, and creating an ongoing cost burden. The projected $3.5 million in startup costs—plus unlimited potential for future grants—creates a new spending stream at the expense of taxpayers. This is another form of unnecessary corporate welfare. Economic development should be led by the private sector, which is far more efficient and responsive, not through state-funded grant programs that distort markets and reward politically connected firms. Moreover, the bill opens the door to long-term obligations and vague strategic mandates that could grow government. The better approach would be to eliminate corporate subsidies and reduce regulatory barriers so innovation can thrive without taxpayer underwriting.