[Excerpt]

In the attached audio interview, Rosalie Tristan and Joe Hinojosa, both organizers with Valley Interfaith, Joe Higgs from IAF, and Bob Fleming, an organizer with The Metropolitan Organization of Houston, say tax breaks for large corporations should not be paid for with monies that would otherwise go to public education. 

[Photos: Rosalie Tristan (left), Joe Hinojosa (holding sign in center) and Bob Fleming (right)]

Valley Interfaith: Don't Suck Money Out of Public Education to Help Large Corporations, Rio Grande Guardian [audio] 

For Immediate Release: March 14, 2023

Contact Info: Jose Guerrero (512) 484-0590

Over 250 clergy and leaders from the Network of Texas IAF Organizations (Texas IAF) will hold a press conference on Tuesday March 21st at 2pm at the Capitol (exact location TBA), calling on State Legislators to invest in Texas schools, workforce, and healthcare, and to block all attempts to resurrect the failed Chapter 313 “Vampire Fund”, which it helped kill in the last legislative session. 

“The choice is clear: either we invest our hard-earned tax dollars in our children and our families’ economic future, or we throw those dollars at multinational corporations in a dead and failed Chapter 313 program,” said Bishop John Ogletree, a leader with the Metropolitan Organization in Houston from First Metropolitan Church. “Industry groups keep trying to bring back Chapter 313 from the grave, like Dracula, under different names and disguises. Let’s keep it dead.”

Chapter 313 has cost Texas taxpayers $1 Billion/year, money which could be going to public schools.  The comptroller has found that most of these dollars go out of state[1], and that current Chapter 313 obligations would cost taxpayers $31 Billion in funding over the life of these agreements.  

“We know real economic development is the result of strong schools and an educated and healthy workforce”, said Jose Guerrero, Central Texas Interfaith leader with St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Austin. “Companies choose a location because of skilled workers: first, second, and third. Everything else is icing on the cake. Texas legislators should be focusing on the long-term health of the economy and educational investments, not short-term bragging rights, like putting notches on a belt.”

The Texas IAF will advocate for these legislative issues on its March 21st Advocacy Day:

• Increasing the Basic Allotment to schools and increasing teacher/staff pay
• Restore the State’s investment in the effective ACE Fund for adult workforce development to $10 Million.
• Opposing reauthorization of Chapter 313 and any school-based corporate tax giveaway program.
• Expanding Medicaid for new mothers to 12 months.
• Enacting sensible school safety and gun safety measures.
• Opposing predatory “payday lending” practices.  

*The Network of Texas IAF Organizations consists of non-partisan, institutionally based community organizations whose purpose is to train leaders to organize families around issues which affect their quality of life. The network includes Communities Organized for Public Service and The Metro Alliance and ICAN in San Antonio, The Border Organization, Valley Interfaith in the Rio Grande Valley; TMO in Houston; EPISO and Border Interfaith In El Paso; Austin Interfaith; ACT in Fort Worth; Dallas Area Interfaith; AMOS - Arlington, The West Texas Organizing Strategy; and Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange.

[1] https://comptroller.texas.gov/transparency/reports/tax-exemptions-and-incidence/2023/96-463.pdf

[Excerpt]

The Network of Texas IAF Organizations, a labor and faith coalition that has staunchly opposed using school property tax breaks for incentives... railed against the Texas Jobs and Security Act.

"It looks like it was written on the back of a napkin,"

stated Jose Guerrero, a leader with Central Texas Interfaith from Saint Ignatius Catholic Church.

The organization believes the proposed bill would have even less regulation than Chapter 313, including the exclusion of minimum job requirements as a key factor in a project's eligibility for approval. "It is hard to imagine that they would propose a program with even less accountability, fewer specifics (like no job requirements), and more leeway for companies to take taxpayer dollars from school children to line their pockets," Guerrero stated.

Over 300 leaders, clergy, religious, and bishops from 20 organizations gathered last week in San Antonio to celebrate five years of Recognizing the Stranger, a West/Southwest IAF training, leadership formation, and parish organizing strategy. 

The Convocation was highlighted by a video message from Pope Francis, who offered his “closeness and support” to the IAF network and its work to organize with immigrants and with those at the margins to encourage “participation of the Christian in public life.”  

[Excerpt]

"This program is literally sucking the blood out of our school funding system and state budget, yet lobby groups continue to try to bring it back from the grave like Dracula," read a statement from the Texas chapter of the Industrial Areas Foundation.

[Photo Credit: Eddie Gaspar, The Texas Tribune]

Gov. Greg Abbott Says Texas Will Revamp Economic Development Program After Property Tax Incentive Expires, Fort Worth Business [pdf]

[Excerpt]

"In December, legislators killed a controversial tax abatement program known as Chapter 313, but its effects will last decades....

“There’s no accountability at the statewide level; nobody administers it,” said Bob Fleming, an organizer with [T]he Metropolitan Organization of Houston who campaigned against Chapter 313 reauthorization back in 2021. “A bunch of local school districts make singular decisions based on what they think is in their interest. Nobody is looking out for the statewide interest. Local school districts are overmatched when the $2,000 suits walk into the room.” ....

“It’s a perverse incentive,” said Doug Greco, lead organizer at Central Texas Interfaith, one of the organizations that helped shut down reauthorization of Chapter 313 in the 2021 legislative session.

“We approach it on a school funding basis,” said Greco, who is already gearing up to fight any Chapter 313 renewal efforts in 2023. “It’s corporate welfare and the people who pay over time are Texas school districts.” ....

“The district my granddaughter goes to is losing $4 million to $5 million every year,” said Rosalie Tristan, referring to Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District. Tristan is an organizer with the community organization Valley Interfaith who lives north of McAllen in the Rio Grande Valley.

“They could be using that money to get more teachers for these students,” she said. “For a parent, or for a grandparent raising her granddaughter, it’s a hit in the gut.”

[Photo Credit: Pu Ying Huang, The Texas Tribune]

Critics Say State Tax Break Helps Petrochemical Companies and Hurts Public Schools, The Texas Tribune [pdf]

[Excerpt]

Organizers "taught people how to listen to others' pain and joy without getting defensive, without wanting to solve the issue," added Elizabeth Valdez, Texas IAF director. "Just letting them be able to share and then asking them what they want to do about it." Valdez said there have been hundreds of house meetings for the synod, and in El Paso, close to 300 people were trained by EPISO/Border Interfaith. In Monterey, COPA conducted six trainings for some 500 parish leaders, who then led synodal listening sessions.

[In photo, a synod training session is held by Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action (COPA) at a parish in the Diocese of Monterey, California. COPA community organizers trained around 500 Catholics to conduct synodal listening sessions in the region.]

For Synod Listening Sessions, US Bishops Turned to Community Organizers, National Catholic Reporter [pdf]

[Excerpt]

"A massive corporate tax-break program in Texas expired in 2022, but before Dec. 31, state officials said an “extraordinary number” of companies tried to apply. Now, it could be up to the state legislature to deal with the stack of pending applications.

Over the years, critics argued certain requirements were whittled away and some companies were bringing few or low-paying jobs with little benefits. Some, including a coalition of interfaith leaders with The Metropolitan Organization, Central Texas Interfaith and Texas Industrial Areas Foundation Organizations, have called out the program as “corporate welfare” and for leaving the rest of the Texas taxpayers to essentially “make up the difference.”

“We pay our taxes. Parents, teachers, grandparents, alumni pay taxes towards our school districts and towards the state. So, we feel that that is something that every body is responsible for,” said Reverend Minerva Camarena-Skeith of St. John’s Episcopal Church."

[Photo Credit: KXAN]

A Corporate Tax Break Program Just Expired in Texas. Will Lawmakers Replace it in 2023?, KXAN [pdf]

Central Texas Interfaith

[Excerpt from FOX 7 Austin]

"The Austin ISD school board has voted against a multi-million dollar tax break for NXP, a semiconductor company... 

"It is not fair that those who have the greatest ability to pay are the ones who don't want to pay a dime," Rev. Minerva Camarena Skeith of Central Texas Interfaith said. 

The tax break called the appraised value limitation, or 313 agreement, lets potential businesses build property and create jobs in exchange for a 10-year limit on the taxable property value for school district maintenance and operation. 

"We want more dollars for AISD and for every school district in this state. We want every child to have every opportunity they need," Rev. Miles Brandon with Central Texas Interfaith said."

Austin ISD School Board Rejects Tax Break for Semiconductor Company, Fox 7 Austin

Austin ISD School Board Denies Tax Break for Semiconductor Company NXP with Narrow Vote, KVUE ABC

Austin ISD Board Considers Chapter 313 Tax Break for Semiconductor Company NXP, KVUE ABC

NXP Fails to Gain School District Tax Incentives for Possible Factory Expansion, Austin Business Journal

With Weeks to Spare, Austin ISD to Vote on NXP Incentives, Austin Business Journal

AISD Board to Vote on Contested Tax Breaks for Billion-Dollar Semiconductor Company, KXAN

Central Texas Interfaith Commends AISD Board for Rejecting Chapter 313 Deal with NXP, Central Texas Interfaith [pdf]

Dallas Area Interfaith

[Excerpt from Dallas Morning News]

"Amid pressure from community advocates, the Dallas schools administration pulled a vote to approve a property tax break for a manufacturing company just before trustees were to weigh in on it Thursday night.

The Texas Economic Development Act – commonly referred to as Chapter 313 based on its position in the tax code – will expire at the end of the month. Companies across Texas are rushing to get deals approved with school districts and lock-in tax abatements ahead of the deadline...

“Does it make sense to continue to grant certain large corporations these huge tax breaks?” Dallas Area Interfaith leader Bill deHaas said ahead of the meeting. “We already know that we have a crunch on educational spending.”

Dallas Area Interfaith Calls on All DISD Trustees to Vote Against Hanwha Q Cells Chapter 313 Application to the Board [pdf]

Dallas ISD Punts Tax Break Ask from Manufacturing Company Ahead of Chapter 313 Expiration, Dallas Morning News [pdf]

Last summer, Texas IAF leaders and nonprofit allies shut down Chapter 313 (a state tax exemption program giving away close to a billion dollars per year to major industrial and petrochemical companies).  Since then, over 400 corporate applications have flooded the system ahead of the program's expiration date at the end of this year -- more than twice as many as before. 

Reverend Minerva Camarena Skeith of Central Texas Interfaith/Texas IAF explains to Jon Stewart the impact of state legislation that allows major corporations to siphon off state funding that could otherwise go to public schools. 

The Problem with Jon Stewart will air this episode on Friday, October 21st.  

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Additional background on Texas IAF effort: 

Texas' Largest Corporate Welfare Program Is Leaving Companies Flush and School Districts Broke, Texas Observer

Huge Corporations are Saving $10 Billion on Texas Taxes, and You're Paying For It, Houston Chronicle 

Sapped by Subsidies: 313 Deals Hurt Texas Cities, Dallas Morning News [pdf]

No More Hogs at the Trough-Containing Corporate Subsidies in Texas, Nonprofit Quarterly

The Unlikely Demise of Texas' Biggest Corporate Tax Break, Texas Observer