AUSTIN (Austin Business Journal) -- The way site selector Joe Lacy sees it, Texas is back in the economic development game as of Sept. 1.
When the clock struck midnight, it was the start of the rule-making process for the state's new school property tax abatement program, known as Chapter 403 for its place in the state code. It will fully go into effect Jan. 1 after the Texas Legislature this year passed House Bill 5 as a replacement for the Chapter 313 incentives that died at the end of 2022.
Sept. 1 also marks the first day that companies considering the Lone Star State for major, capital-intensive projects encounter a friendlier outlook on their projected bottom line.
"When you're looking at a project and a project is considering Texas, when Chapter 313 went away and before HB 5 was approved, there was a significant impact to those projects on their financial analysis," said Lacy, who is managing director and partner at New Jersey-based Biggins Lacy Shapiro and Co. "That was having an effect that was causing those projects to have to look at the Texas locations differently. ... The passage of HB 5 was just critical to the state being able to compete, especially for those projects."
Read the full story at Austin Business Journal.
