Texas Has One Week to Save Texas-Sized Tax Break

An overarching reason for the success the State of Texas has enjoyed of late when it comes to attracting large manufacturing plants, is the now world-renowned Chapter 313 program. It’s the corporate tax break program that has been attributed to attracting Tesla and Samsung. And now, if the state legislature does not act quickly it will expire at year end, and with it, the chance to land more big whales.

Chapter 313 works like this; a taxpayer agrees to build or install property and create jobs in exchange for a 10-year limitation on the taxable property value for school district maintenance and operations tax (M&O) purposes. Business say it needs to get renewed.

“We absolutely need to get a tool back on the books” that incentivizes economic development by enabling reductions in school property taxes in exchange for large, job-creating projects, said Glenn Hamer, president of the Texas Association of Business. Opponents say the tax scheme takes too much away from local schools.