Every Texan, a nonprofit policy research organization, has uncovered a proposal that would drastically reduce the ability to assess the financial impacts of companies that get large school-district tax breaks.
The tax breaks—formally called Chapter 313 school property tax abatements—are intended to spur employers to provide economic development and jobs for locating their companies in a particular area. But they also drain a significant amount of potential funding from schools. Most are 10-year agreements that lay out requirements for the employer to get the tax breaks. The expansive details on those agreements and financial impacts have been compiled in reports by the Texas State Comptroller’s Office.
But now, the Comptroller’s Office is proposing to scale back that information—including historical data and future cost projections to school districts. Every Texan believes this information is invaluable to taxpayers and the media in evaluating these property-tax abatements. Read more on Every Texan’s site on how you can protest this move by the Comptroller’s Office.
- Read more on Chapter 313 abatements in the Houston Chronicle and Texas Observer.