Senator José Rodríguez files economic development bills to encourage Downtown development
AUSTIN – Senator José Rodríguez and Representatives Joe Pickett, Marisa Márquez, and Cesar Blanco have filed three pieces of legislation designed to encourage development in Downtown El Paso.
The package of bills, SB 583/HB 1754, SB 597/HB 1742, and SB 598/HB 1991, would allow the City to add municipally-owned land to economic incentive packages, entitle the City to a 10-year rebate of taxes collected on certain hotel projects, and make clear that private land can be included in public-private partnerships proposals received by the city, respectively.
“Our city does not have all the tools needed to build a first class tourism industry – primarily because of the lack of a downtown hotel that can attract large-scale conferences and exhibition shows. Working together with the rest of the El Paso delegation, we have filed the legislation necessary to allow our city to grow that part of our local economy, create new and permanent jobs, while also attracting other types of commercial and industrial growth to El Paso. This is responsible legislation that safeguards our local tax dollars while also giving us the ability to partner with the State of Texas to grow our tourism and travel industry,” Senator Rodríguez said.
SB 583 and HB 1754 by Rodríguez and Pickett would enhance current economic development incentives intended to lure businesses to cities by allowing cities to additionally transfer property to investing businesses as part of an incentive package. Chapter 380 of the Texas Local Government Code already authorizes Texas cities to provide assistance for economic development. For example, cities may offer money, loans and subsidies, city personnel, infrastructure construction, and city services, all for the promotion of business development. The law is unclear as to whether a city can offer municipally-owned land to a prospective business.
The Rodríguez and Pickett bills clarify that a city may transfer to an entity real property. The bill requires that the transferee entity use the property in a manner that promotes a public purpose relating to economic development, and that the local incentive agreement between the city and transferee must also include provisions under which the city is granted sufficient control of the property to ensure that public purpose is accomplished and that the city receives the return benefit.
SB 597 and HB 1742 by Rodríguez and Márquez would add El Paso to the list of cities that may qualify for a 10-year rebate of certain taxes in order to pay down costs associated with developing a convention center hotel. Current law qualifies all other cities with more than 600,000 in population except for the City of El Paso (meaning the cities of Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Dallas and Austin all qualify for the tax rebate while El Paso does not). Current law also qualifies eight other cities with less population than El Paso.
The program authorizes those qualifying cities to a 10 year tax rebate of state sales tax receipts, state hotel occupancy tax receipts, and state mixed beverage tax receipts, which may be used to pay any debt obligations issued to acquire, lease, construct, or equip a convention center hotel (meaning a hotel built on city-owned land within 1,000 feet of a convention center). The Rodríguez and Márquez bills would add El Paso to the list of qualifying cities, which will better enable the City to partner with the private sector to build a first class convention center hotel.
Finally, SB 598 and HB 1991 by Rodríguez and Blanco would make clear that privately-owned land may be included in so called “public-private partnership proposals.” Current law already allows for the creation of public-private partnerships for purposes of timely construction, improvement, and expansion of facilities that serve a public purpose. Chapter 2267 of the Government Code was in fact designed to provide governmental entities with the greatest possible flexibility in contracting with private entities on such partnerships.
However, it was not clear that the Code allowed private landowners to contribute land to a partnership for purposes of improvements. Accordingly, the Rodríguez and Blanco bills clarify that qualifying public-private partnership projects may include improvements to real property owned either by a governmental entity or by a private person, provided the property is available for public use.
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José Rodríguez represents Texas Senate District 29, which includes the counties of El Paso, Hudspeth, Culberson, Jeff Davis, and Presidio. He represents both urban and rural constituencies, and more than 350 miles of the Texas-Mexico border. Senator Rodríguez currently serves as the Chairman of the Senate Hispanic Caucus, and a member of the Senate Committees on Education; Health and Human Services; Veteran Affairs and Military Installations; Nominations; and Agriculture, Water, and Rural Affairs.
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