Burgess Owens: “as soon as the tax abatement run out for many of these companies, they are going to leave the gentlewoman's State and go…”

“as soon as the tax abatement run out for many of these companies, they are going to leave the gentlewoman's State and go to Mexico or somewhere else. This is a great argument; of course, I do not like to see the Federal Government be forced to assume new responsibilities, but it is a great argument for the Federal Government assuming more responsibilities for school construction, because the wealth is in the country. It is not in the counties, as it was before, but it is somewhere in the country when we see the $13 trillion stock market value. Let the Federal Government take part of that wealth and use it to build schools across the country. It did not apply 20 years ago; it was not necessary 20 or 25 years ago, but it is necessary now. What is wrong with safeguarding the national interests by seeing to it that we have adequate schools and school construction is one of those areas where it is most intense in terms of capital. School systems are struggling for operating budgets to keep the right number of teachers and suppliers and all of the other expenses going. Surely, a one-shot expenditure on a massive scale to deal with the fact that the General Accounting Office says we need about, in 1995, we needed about $110 billion just to repair schools that needed repair and to build, to keep up with the current enrollment in 1995, and now we need much more. So we need a massive injection, similar to the highway bill injection.”