Stop Corporate Welfare!
StopTaxHandouts.com
We are not asking the county to keep anyone out. If a company wants to build in Leon County, build here. We are asking that they pay the same taxes you pay.
A tax abatement is not a welcome mat. It is a red carpet — and the people who did not get one paid for it.
An abatement does not make the tax bill disappear. It moves it. The roads still need grading, the ambulance still runs, the fire department still answers the call — and when one company is excused from paying its share, the people who were not excused cover the difference. That is what makes it a handout instead of a discount.
Nobody is forcing the county to give this away. Texas law leaves new construction out of the 3.5 percent voter-approval cap, so a brand-new project can be taxed in full without breaching any limit and without raising anyone else’s rate. Granting the abatement is a decision five people make in a room, and they can decide otherwise.
“Millions” is an abstraction. A county budget is not. Taxed in full, a project like this is road and bridge money, ambulance money and fire protection money — every year, starting the year it is built. Abated, the payoff arrives a decade out, and only if the company is still standing.
The Commissioners Court votes on abatements. Five people — the County Judge and four Commissioners — and all five hear from the companies asking. They should hear from you too.
Commissioners Court meets in the Annex 2 Great Room, 3rd floor, 155 N. Cass St., Centerville, usually at 9:30 a.m. Meetings are open to the public and there is a public comment period.