The Texas IAF and allies stopped the reauthorization of the failed Chapter 313 program in the 2021 Legislative Session. Chapter 313 is Texas’ largest corporate welfare program, which drained over $1Billion/year in potential school funding and gave it to major oil, gas, and manufacturing corporations. Now industry lobbyists want to bring Chapter 313 back from the grave, like Dracula, in the form of House Bill 5 (HB5). The Substitute Bill was unveiled and passed forward by the Ways and Means Committee mid-April even after Texas IAF leaders testified against the bill.
HB5 not only revives but expands Chapter 313 with even bigger tax breaks to corporations, weaker job and lower wage requirements, less money for schools and no environment protections.
We urge you to contact your representatives’ offices today and ask them to vote AGAINST HB5 and any legislation that takes money from schoolchildren to line the pockets of wealthy corporations.
Why VOTE NO ON HB5:
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BAD FOR TAXPAYERS - The Chapter 313 program already committed Texas taxpayers to $31 Billion in subsidies to large corporations, most of which goes out of state. Up to 900 agreements have already been approved. HB5 would not only keep the floodgates of unnecessary tax breaks open, but broaden qualifications to include expansion into more industries and the expansion projects of corporations already located here. This bill would continue the long history of abuse of taxpayer money and at the expense of Texas schoolchildren.
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BAD FOR SCHOOLS - 95% of schoolchildren were in districts that lost potential funding because of Chapter 313. HB5 will continue the practice while statutorily reducing the benefits school districts receiving 313s can get from companies.
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BAD FOR WORKERS - Chapter 313 had weak job/wage requirements that were rarely enforced. HB5 removes even these already weak standards. Under HB5 the requirement to pay employees' health insurance is ELIMINATED, and the minimum wage target is LOWERED (from the average manufacturing wage in the county to the average overall wage, which is a much lower hourly wage).
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BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT - HB5 prohibits school districts from negotiating increased environmental protections as part of the agreements, and eliminates renewable energy firms from the program.
Latest Updates
Jun 12, 2025
In the closing weeks of the 2025 legislative session, over 100 Texas IAF leaders mobilized once again to stop a corporate tax giveaway that would have slashed wages and cost Texas schools hundreds of millions in lost revenue.
House Bill 105, filed quietly in the final days for bill filing, would have gutted key wage and job creation standards in the JETI (Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation) program. JETI replaced the failed Chapter 313 program in 2023, effectively cutting it in half.
If passed, HB 105 would have created a new class of “Priority Projects” for companies investing $750 million or more, allowing them to:
- Avoid proving their tax breaks were a “compelling factor” in choosing Texas,
- Sidestep any requirement to create new jobs,
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Lower wage standards from 110% of the average industry wage for that type of manufacturing facility to 110% of the average county manufacturing wage, which includes many low wage manufacturing jobs, often tens of thousands of dollars less.
In short, it would have allowed some of the largest companies in the world to drive down the wages in their industry by locating new plants in Texas counties with low average manufacturing wages.
Jan 24, 2024
[Excerpt]
“Tax breaks should be decoupled from school funding and from school board decision making, period,” said Rev. Miles Brandon, a [Central Texas] Interfaith leader and pastor of St. Julian of Norwich Episcopal Church...
Brandon said the new program is better than what existed previously because it no longer includes direct payments to schools, which he described as a “perverse incentive” for districts to approve deals despite the cost to the state's overall education system. He also said the decrease in the total size of each tax abatement is an improvement over Chapter 313, as is the requirement that each deal must pass the governor's office.
But he said Austin Interfaith will continue to encourage school board members to vote in opposition to any request by a company to participate in the new program...“As we see how this law unfolds, I think we will continue to oppose" applications, Brandon said."
[Photo Credit: Arnold Wells, Austin Business Journal]
Texas' New Incentives Tool is Ready, Austin Business Journal [link]
May 31, 2023
Two Years of Texas IAF Opposition Leads to Reforms to Limit Giving School Money for Corporate Tax Breaks
The Texas Senate and House passed a compromised version of HB5 that still fundamentally represents misguided economic development to the benefit of out of state corporations that would come here for other factors anyway. This perpetuates a corporate welfare state which Chambers of Commerce and industry groups could never prove otherwise.
However, a 2-year campaign by Texas IAF and allies led to some major reforms in HB5 compared to the now defunct and failed Chapter 313 program. When these tax abatement deals are proposed at local school districts, there will now be a fair fight for taxpayers and public school supporters concerned about corporate welfare. HB 5 Reforms to Chapter 313 include:
May 22, 2023
CREATE 2-YEAR PAUSE TO ASSESS FISCAL IMPACT OF $31 BILLION IN CURRENT CHAPTER 313 TAXPAYER OBLIGATIONS
The Networks of Texas IAF Organizations (Texas IAF) urge Texas Senators to vote NO on HB5, the bill to renew the failed and defunct Chapter 313 program. With just a few days to go before the deadline for the Senate to pass House bills, the legislature has no clear path forward for the state’s costliest corporate tax incentive program, which was ended last legislative session with bi-partisan opposition. HB5 passed out of committee late Sunday with only 6 of 11 votes in favor.
“Though in the past few days there has finally been a real debate on the use of hard-earned taxpayer dollars on corporate giveaways, time has run out to put together an economic development program that protects schools and taxpayers,” said Rosalie Tristan, leader with Valley Interfaith of the Texas IAF. “Legislators and lobbyists had two years to put together a plan, and it’s clear that none exists because school-based corporate tax breaks are a failed strategy that undermines the future of our state.”
May 10, 2023
[Excerpt]
Chapter 313 was one of the country’s worst examples of crony capitalism, funneling billions in Texas taxpayer dollars to out-of-state interests. The program still costs Texas taxpayers over $1 billion a year in tax breaks to major oil, gas and manufacturing companies — money that could go to educating our children.
Dallas Area Interfaith, the Texas IAF, allies and a bipartisan group of legislators killed the reauthorization of Chapter 313 in the 2021 legislative session. Rather than leaving the program in the grave, industry groups are actually proposing to resurrect Chapter 313 this legislative session and make it worse in the form of House Bill 5.
