[Excerpt]

With little more than five weeks left in the legislative session, the House is contemplating passing something worse — House Bill 5, a less transparent and potentially far more costly tax incentive program than Chapter 313, which forfeited tens of billions of dollars in school property taxes in order to lure new businesses to local school districts....

[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.

[Excerpt]

State Lawmakers Discuss Bringing Back Tax Incentive Program for School Districts, KVUE [pdf]

Clock is Ticking on Texas' Chapter 313 Incentives -- and Major Projects May Miss Out, Austin Business Journal [pdf]

[Excerpt from Texas Observer]

Come December 31, 2022, the law that had allowed [major corporations] to keep more than $10 billion in school property tax revenue off the ledgers over two decades will be no more. But companies wasted little time grieving. There was still plenty of life to live after the session ended sine die. 

Since then, companies have applied for close to 500 tax break deals for projects all over the state—for everything from wind and solar farms, oil and gas processing, carbon capture, and biodiesel production. By comparison, the Texas comptroller received an average of 90 applications annually in the past decade. 

“It’s like hogs at the trough,” said Bishop John Ogletree, a leader with the Houston chapter of the [Texas] Industrial Areas Foundation, a faith-based coalition that helped bring down Chapter 313. “Multi-billion-dollar oil, gas, and tech corporations asking for school districts and taxpayer dollars to bolster their profits. If these applications get approved, it will blow a hole in our state and school district budgets for a generation to come.”

Unsure whether the state will revive or replace the program in the 2023 session, companies have grown increasingly aggressive in trying to lock in future tax breaks for speculative projects that may—or may not—come to fruition many years out. 

[Photo Credit: NonProfit Quarterly]

Money for Nothing and Your Chips Are Free, Texas Observer

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

The Sun is Setting on Chapter 313 Incentives, Austin Business Journal

Companies Lining Up for Future Tax Breaks as Texas Incentive Program Nears End, Dallas Morning News

What Could Epic Samsung Expansion Mean for Texas?, Austin Business Journal

Point Isabel School District Rejects Texas LNG Tax Abatement, Brownsville Herald

'Smoke and Mirrors' or Long-Range Planning? Possible Samsung Tax Breaks Stir Debate, Austin American Statesman

Report: Samsung Adding Land to $17B Semi-conductor Campus in Taylor, Considering 11 New Facilities, KVUE

State Sees Rush of Tax Break Applications as Program Soft Deadline Approaches, KVUE

Friends of the Land, Bastrop Interfaith, Oppose Dogwood Creek Solar 313 Application to Elgin ISD, Elgin Courier

Austin ISD Moves Forward With Semi-Conductors Agreement, Faces Community Opposition, Community Impact 

Austin ISD Considering Proposal That Would Help Lower Recapture Payments, Faces Opposition, CBS Austin 

NXP Seeking Up To $140 Million in Tax Breaks for School Districts, Austin-American Statesman 

Chapter 313 Incentives: What They Are and Why They're Suddenly the Talk of the Town, Austin Business Journal 

Oped: Don't Ask Texas Schoolchildren to Fund Your Corporate Expansion, Austin Chronicle 

Statement on Austin ISD and Round Rock ISD Chapter 313 Votes, Central Texas Interfaith

Samsung Ask Texas Taxpayers To Foot $4.8 Billion Bill For Future School Taxes. Governor Abbott Endorses Biggest Corporate Welfare Deal in Texas History, Central Texas Interfaith

Fr. Miles Brandon of St Julian of Norwich Episcopal Church and Central TX Interfaith and Minister Jaqueline Hailey of New Hope Baptist Church and TMO testified on behalf of the Network of Texas IAF Organizations at the Texas House Public Education Committee hearing on school finance.

At the Texas IAF Statewide Legislative Strategy meeting, held in Austin, 200 leaders from nine Texas IAF organizations convened to build relationships, report on 2018 progress and prepare for the 2019 legislative session.  Ernesto Cortes Jr., IAF National Co-Director, delivered a 'state of the economy' training before leaders broke out into smaller groups for workshops around school finance and property taxes, workforce development, and healthcare affordability. 

Workshops were led by panels of IAF organizers and local policy experts, including: Josh Sanderson and Dr. Ray Freeman, Deputy Directors of the Equity Center; Michelle Smith, Director of Governmental Relations, and Libby Cohen of Raise Your Hand Texas; Neil Vickers, Executive VP of Finance and Administration at Austin Community College; and Anne Dunkelberg, Associate Director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP).  

In April, leaders plan to call on state legislators to invest more state funding in public schools, long-term job training programs and into healthcare affordability, in addition addressing local reforms around immigration, criminal justice and payday lending reform.

In a move to boost voter turnout in neglected communities, Texas IAF organizations reached into suburbs surrounding Texas’ largest cities to assemble by the thousands in political, nonpartisan assemblies to help leaders wrest commitments from candidates for state and federal office. Having witnessed candidate responses to locally-developed agendas, which span from local control to Texas school finance and federal immigration reform, leaders are now mobilizing their neighbors to Get Out The Vote.

In North Dallas, for example, two thousand DAI leaders -- many from Carrollton and Farmers Branch -- invited candidates for House Districts 114, 115, 105 and 107, and Congressional District 32, to commit to investing public funds in local labor market intermediaries, crafting immigration reform that would end the separation of children from their parents at the border (and include protections for DACA youth), cracking down on predatory lending, and repealing Senate Bill 4. Hundreds more from Austin and Hayes County challenged candidates for US Congressional Districts 25 and 21, and State House Districts 47, 45 and 136 to publicly pledge support for similar priorities, including the defense of local control over municipal housing and labor policy. In Helotes, just outside of San Antonio, COPS / Metro leaders carted out boxes with thousands of postcard pledges by voters to participate in the election of US Representative for Congressional District 23, which extends to the outskirts of El Paso, and State Representative for House Districts 117 and 118. In Houston, TMO organized assemblies with candidates for US Congressional District 7 and 29; House Districts 144, 133, and 135; and Senate District 17.

Already, unpaid armies of organizational leaders have knocked on thousands of doors and called thousands more to remind supporters and voters to participate in the midterm elections. Last weekend, for example, Austin Interfaith leaders knocked on doors in three counties, four legislative districts and 2 congressional districts. This weekend, all Texas IAF organizations are making a final push -- from the pews, inside health clinics and in long-neglected neighborhoods -- to ensure the highest turnout possible in support of their agenda.

Leaders understand that targeted voter engagement efforts following accountability assemblies help advance their agenda. This year alone, local Texas IAF organizations succeeded in raising municipal wage floors in San Antonio and Austin to $15 per hour; leveraging the support of Chief of Police Art Acevedo to make Houston the first city in Texas to support a gun safety strategy; and preventing unnecessary deportations through widespread adoption of identification cards generated by parishes within the Catholic Diocese of Dallas.

Texas’ Minority GOP Voters: Republican Allies Have Vanished, McClatchy

Activist Groups COPS and Metro Alliance Spreading Message to the Suburbs, WOAI

Austin Interfaith Hosts Large Gathering of 2018 Midterms Election Candidates, KVUE

Candidates Share Platform at Assembly, Austin American Statesman

Why Dallas Republicans Skipped an Interfaith Forum, Rewire.News

To Help Immigrants Feel Safer Around Police, Some Churches Start Issuing IDs, NPR

DAI Accountability Forum [Video]