Sugar Land values look an awful lot like New York City values—both have entities that LOVE government programs or crony corporatist handouts to subsidize their bottom line at someone else’s expense.
Take these two examples.
MyVisaJobs.com released their annual H1B Visa and Employment-based Green Card report and there are some interesting findings in the report. The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa in the United States and allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. If a foreign worker in H-1B status quits or is dismissed from the sponsoring employer, the worker must either apply for and be granted a change of status to another non-immigrant status, find another employer (subject to application for adjustment of status and/or change of visa), or leave the U.S.
Listed by Work City and based on the number of Labor Condition Applications (LCA) the Top Ten work cities according to MyVisaJobs.com are:
- New York, NY
- Houston, TX
- San Francisco, CA
- Atlanta, GA
- San Jose, CA
- Chicago, IL
- Sunnyvale, CA
- Charlotte, NC
- Irving, TX
- Dallas, TX
Coming in at number 161 is Sugar Land, Texas courtesy of the number of LCA’s submitted by Schlumberger Technology and Fluor Enterprises.
How many from Schlumberger Technology?
“Schlumberger Technology Corporation has filed 1290 labor condition applications for H1B visa and 26 labor certifications for green card from fiscal year 2013 to 2015. Schlumberger Technology was ranked 88 among all visa sponsors. Please note that 35 LCA for H1B Visa and 4 LC for green card have been denied or withdrawn during the same period.”
Ranked 88 among ALL H1B visa sponsors? Dependent on foreign workers? What-no American citizen engineers to be found in Texas that will work for $89,000-$130,000 in salary?
Schlumberger, as Aaron Layman over at Covering Katy.com wrote here, was also the recent beneficiary of a HUGE tax abatement package amount of government largesse at the expense of Sugar Land and Fort Bend County residential property owners:
- Direct incentive of $2.5 million will be paid to Schlumberger over 10 years in annual payments
- A one-time construction-related sales tax reimbursement grant of $750,000 will be paid once the project is completed
- Tax abatement of 100 percent per year over 10 years on real improvements and personal property
- The city will widen Industrial Boulevard to a four-lane divided roadway by 2017
Gee—whether it’s dependency on a government hiring program or cronyism courtesy of the government of Sugar Land to subsidize the bottom line of a corporation at the expense of Sugar Land and Fort Bend County residential property owners it sounds an awful lot like the same cronyism used by a developer who enlisted the government to exercise eminent domain to take Vera Cokings’ and Suzette Kelo’s house for private development gain in order to subsidize the bottom line of a corporation.
New York City values look a whole lot like Sugar Land values.