A Travis County Commissioner says local prosperity is shadowed by rising poverty. In this week’s PolitiFact check-in, KUT’s Emily Donahue spoke to Gardner Selby of the Austin American-Statesman’s PolitiFact Texas.
PolitiFact tackled a claim by Travis County commissioner Sarah Eckhardt who, in an email, said conditions are tough despite "present prosperity."
Her message called for reversing our “rising poverty.” She also said: "Our unemployment rate is below the national average, yet our poverty rate exceeds the national average."
The PolitiFact team started by comparing the county’s jobless rate to the national one – and found it has been lower locally. Most recently, the county jobless rate in December was 4.9 percent, compared to the national rate, 7.6 percent.
Read the entire check here. You can listen to the interview above.
