Texas launches searchable database of economic development agreements
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Designed to improve transparency, the Comptroller’s database allows the public to search for agreements by local government, business entity and agreement type.
The Texas Comptroller recently launched an online database for local governments to report the economic development agreements they sign with businesses. The searchable database allows the public to search for agreements by local government, business entity and agreement type.
The database, designed to improve transparency, will be the state's central repository for these local agreements, and local entities will provide a direct link on their website to the location of their agreement on the Comptroller’s website.
The database includes over 3,000 entries and only includes agreements that are or were active as of Sept. 1, 2021, when the law requiring the database went into effect, and those agreements that have been entered into, amended or renewed since then.
According to a report in the Houston Chronicle, the database shows 279 cities and 63 counties submitted agreements to the database, with cities making up more than 80% of all deals. Many of the deals are for breaks on property taxes, but other incentives include hotel occupancy tax incentives, waivers for permitting fees to homebuilders and smaller grants. Hundreds of agreements are for more than 10 years, and 68 were longer than 30 years, the article stated.
Round Rock signed a 60-year agreement with Dell Technologies to locate its headquarters there. Since 1993, the city has paid more than $164 million in sales tax rebates to the company and will pay incentives until 2053, according to the Chronicle.
The investment was worth it, according to Round Rock Mayor Craig Morgan. The company could have located anywhere, and the deal “generated over $1.5 billion in direct sales-tax revenue to the state of Texas,” he said at a February 2020 comptroller hearing in Austin, the Chronicle reported.
“This new tool is a continuation of my agency’s commitment to giving taxpayers a user-friendly view into how government is treating their hard-earned tax dollars,” Comptroller Glenn Hegar said.