HARRIS COUNTY PROPERTY TAX ABATEMENT

Category: Local

Texas legislation (Tax Code Chapter 312) allows local jurisdictions to offer incentives to attract new industries and to encourage the retention and development of existing businesses through property tax exemptions or reductions. Harris County’s Tax Abatement Program promotes new growth, new wealth, new jobs, new opportunities and environmental sustainability.

Basic Qualifications:

1. Increase tax roll value of new real property by at least $1M;
2. Create at least 25 new full-time permanent positions at the project site;
3. Must be competitively sited where senior management is actively evaluating jurisdictions, in addition to Harris County and, but for tax abatement, the project would not be constructed in Harris County;
4. Must provide salaries to all Employees, including contract Employees and employees hired by contractors for construction of the Company's facilities related to the incentive Agreement, at a “Competitive Market Wage” with Workers' Compensation Insurance;
5. Must, regardless of project size, hire at least 50% of its new employees at the project location from residents of the County of Harris;
6. Must commit to making a good faith effort to increase opportunities for MWBE (Minority/Women-owned Businesses and Enterprises) contractors and subcontractors in alignment with the Harris County goals and practices;
7. Must not involve contractors that have (1) any outstanding wage theft complaints against them or any wage theft violations committed in the last three years; (2) any outstanding OSHA investigations or violations in the past three years;
8. Must have a human resources benefits policy: (a) meeting all applicable state and federal requirements, including provision of health benefits at a level which, as determined by the Commissioners Court, meet or exceed the requirements of the Patient Protections and Affordable Care Act in effect as of the date of the adoption of these Guidelines and Criteria; and (b) including the applicant’s offering group coverage or contribution to health benefits in a dollar amount that provides meaningful opportunity for all workers to purchase coverage for all Employees and Employee family members (“all” Employees and Employee family members defined to include same sex/domestic partners);
9. Must provide the County with a copy of the applicant's equal employment opportunity policy. An equal employment opportunity policy must account for fair chance hiring opportunities. If the applicant does not have a written equal employment policy at the time of application, applicant must provide County with a written plan for adoption of such policy, to be completed and provided to the County prior to any Agreement being executed. NO Agreement will be entered into until the copy of the policy is provided to County;
10. Must be shown not to solely or primarily have the effect of transferring employment from one part of the County to another;
11. Must provide OSHA-10 training for construction workers and OSHA-30 training for supervisors in language the employees can understand; and
12. Must prohibit any retaliation by Owner against workers who report safety issues on the site.

Current eligibility requirements are detailed in the approved Guidelines & Criteria for Granting Tax Abatement in a Reinvestment Zone Created in Harris County (Tax Abatement Guidelines).  Interested parties may apply by filling out and submitting a complete Tax Abatement Application and reviewing the Checklist.