01/11/2016 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Regular Council Meeting January 11, 2016 Page 5 ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE IN TAX ABATEMENTS AND APPROVING GUIDELINES AND CRITERIA FOR GRANTING TAX ABATEMENTS IN THE CITY OF PARIS, TEXAS; MAKING OTHER FINDINGS AND PROVISIONS RELATED TO THE SUBJECT; AND DECLARING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. City Manager John Godwin explained that every other year Texas municipalities that offer tax abatements must re -adopt their abatement policies. He said that PEDC had a meeting November 17 and unanimously voted to recommend two changes to the City Council. Mr. Godwin explained the two changes were to move responsibility for monitoring abatements back to the granting jurisdiction and to change the Tax Abatement Criteria and Guidelines to allow an exception for Greenfield sites. Mayor Hashmi said the document did not contain language about someone not meeting qualifications. Mr. Godwin said State Law covered that and the company would not get a tax abatement if they did not qualify. Council Members Pickle and Plata inquired who from the City was going to be responsible for compliance and Mr. Godwin said the city manager, the city attorney or the finance director. Council Member Clifford said he would like to see compliance done by the city attorney and would like to see a report from the city attorney regarding compliance by the companies. He also said he would like language added to the tax abatement guidelines and criteria that addresses what is going to happen when a company is in default if they do not submit documents. Council Member Lancaster favored Council Member Clifford's suggestions. Mayor Hashmi favored PEDC to continue the compliance, because they were already monitoring everything. PEDC Board Member Don Wilson said he agreed wholeheartedly with Council Member Clifford. Mr. Wilson said when he looked at the tax abatements, there were a lot of things that were legal and totally confused him. He said compliance needs to be under an attorney, who should then talk to the appraisal district and report back to the Council. Mayor Hashmi explained that when Skinner came to Paris, their first point of contact was with PEDC and PEDC negotiated the deal. Mr. Wilson said they did come to PEDC but did not negotiate the tax abatement, because that comes from the taxing entities. Mr. Wilson said this puts PEDC in an unusual situation when recruiting if they are responsible for the compliance oversight for tax abatements. He said PEDC was the compliance entity for incentives that PEDC awards to companies. Council Member Pickle agreed with Council Member Clifford and Mr. Wilson. Subject to addition of the following three revisions: referencing State Law with regard to qualifications and the company will be responsible for reporting to the City; compliance will be monitored by the taxing entities; and an exception for Greenfield sites, a Motion to approve this item was made by Mayor Hashmi and seconded by Council Member Frierson. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. 18. Receive presentation from State Street Housing regarding a tax credit for a housing proj ect. Kelly Garrett with State Street Housing gave a presentation regarding a proposed project which will be located on a five acre tract located at 4800 Lamar Avenue, west of Highway 82.