When state lawmakers last year decided to kill a ballooning economic incentive program...
Barbers Hill Independent School District Superintendent Greg Poole, right, was a pioneer in seeing the financial benefit of Chapter 313 for school districts. Companies that sought tax breaks under the program are paying his school district more than $235 million.
“It’s like hogs at the trough,” said Bishop John Ogletree, an official with the faith-based Texas Industrial Areas Foundation, which has opposed the arrangements. Since the Legislature adjourned at the end of May 2021, by comparison, records show companies have filed requests for more than 460 new tax breaks - about 400 in the past five months alone.
A spokesman for the comptroller’s office said the agency’s staff simply followed the law as it was written. Some of the country’s largest oil and gas companies used the deals to save hundreds of millions of dollars for their sprawling new refineries and processing facilities along the coast. Dozens of wind andused it to build electricity-producing facilities in the Panhandle and West Texas. Giant chip manufacturers signed on to save money on their new Central Texas manufacturing plants.
last year found that the proof required by the comptroller’s office was so loose that less than 2.5 percent of applications were ever rejected - even if it was apparent the companies had no intention of locating anywhere but Texas.companies had already publicly announced the projects - in some cases even starting construction - before applying and got the subsidies anyway.
“They know they’re not going to get another deal like this anytime soon, so while the door’s open they’re rushing through it,” said Dick Lavine, a senior policy analyst for Every Texan, a left-leaning nonprofit that has long opposed the program. “The state will be paying for literally decades to come.
Also getting in its 11th-hour request for the incentives was GlobiTech, a semiconductor wafer manufacturer. The company's, filed in April, were for four separate, but connected projects in Grayson County. The final one isn’t scheduled to go online until 2040. Jensen, whose research has concluded that 85 percent of the projects receiving Chapter 313 tax breaks would have been built in Texas without the incentive, is skeptical. “Bricks are often produced in areas of raw materials, but close to demand,” he said. “Brick companies come to Texas to sell bricks to Texans.”
Some conservatives have suggested removing wind and solar energy projects from the program, though doing so could risk draining Democratic support.
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Texas A&M eliminates Texas from College World SeriesThe Aggies break a nine-game losing streak in Omaha by handing the Longhorns a second...
Read more »
Texas and A&M meet in Omaha with a lot more on the line than just rivalryIt’s win or go home for both programs in second game of College World Series
Read more »
For the first time, a sea turtle has laid its eggs on this Texas beachFor the first time, the world's rarest species of sea turtle has laid eggs on Magnolia Beach in Texas, experts say.
Read more »
Texas GOP convention delegates boo Cornyn over bipartisan gun law talks in WashingtonHOUSTON — Republican Sen. John Cornyn Friday was roundly booed at the Texas GOP Convention by delegates angry about his key role in a bipartisan Senate...
Read more »
Study shows low health system rankings for Texas - KRLD News - Omny.fm
Read more »