“So when we have nothing and have a whole tool box, we’re at a decided disadvantage.” “Those who are opposed to them, they don’t understand what we’re up against,” said Phelan, who represents a state House district with dozens of active Chapter 313 agreements for petrochemical and refining companies. Still, Meyer apparently has backing from House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, who defended the program at that same event last month, saying that the state wouldn’t need to provide such incentives if other states or countries weren’t offering similarly robust abatements. Dan Patrick, who presides over the upper chamber, did not respond to a request for comment.
Over in the Senate, where Meyer’s legislation during the regular session died, it’s less clear whether there is the same interest to rework the program. We want a program that’s competitive and without all of the onerous, exhausting characteristics that are in the current 313 program that do nothing but make us less competitive.” “Let’s put a sheet over it, bury it and start over. “I think that most of the legislators that know economic development now realize that 313 has too much baggage,” said Bennett, the president of the Texas Association of Manufacturers. Meanwhile, some advocates of the program are still hopeful that the Legislature could eventually consider bringing back some version of the tax incentive and are open to seeing changes to it. Critics of the program like Lavine and Jensen have called the proposed rule change a troubling lack of transparency. Last month, the comptroller’s office proposed reducing the amount of information it collects about Chapter 313 ahead of the program winding down, as the Houston Chronicle and Texas Observer recently reported. “I don’t think we’ve seen fully the rush yet.
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“If you were considering a capital intensive investment in the future, this is a really lucrative incentive and there are few strings - it’s essentially free money,” Jensen said in an interview last week. “Why would we need to continue to incentivize?” Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, asked Murphy during the chamber’s debate on the legislation. “Chairman, why would we need to further incentivize industries with 313 to do a renovation project if the idea of the program is to … attract that business and make them business partners?” state Rep. But the legislation came with a hefty price tag - almost $45 billion for the state through 2049, according to the Texas comptroller’s office - which only fueled Republicans’ and Democrats’ skepticism. Jim Murphy, R-Houston, that would have extended the program for 10 years and expanded the incentives to renovations or other improvements for existing projects. The House had also debated a proposal by state Rep.
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But the bill was never debated before the full Senate. Morgan Meyer, a Dallas Republican chairing the chamber’s tax-writing committee, that would have extended the program for two years. Just days before that investigation published, the House had passed legislation authored by state Rep. The investigation also revealed that almost all applications for the program had been approved. That shift of state dollars, critics say, leaves less money on the table for other state services, such as health care or public safety.Īround the same time, the Houston Chronicle published a multi-part investigation that found dozens of companies had failed to fulfill their job-creation pledges but faced no penalties and in some cases had already announced projects before applying to the program. There’s no downside for school districts to approve the tax breaks, because any foregone revenue for public schools is made up for by the state. The Texas comptroller’s office must also approve those agreements. Under the Chapter 313 program, manufacturing and energy companies apply to the local school district for a 10-year discount on their property tax bills in exchange for building or expanding in the community and, in a number of cases, creating new jobs. “I’m not too optimistic would be included if we had three or four more special sessions.” “Distorted incentive” “The season has likely passed to try and address this in a special session,” he said. Stan Lambert, an Abilene Republican who asked Abbott in June to include the program’s renewal on the agenda for a special session that began in July, said earlier this week he’s not hopeful that state lawmakers will have a chance to renew or rework the program before it expires.
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