RYLANDER ANNOUNCES COUNTIES QUALIFYING FOR TAX CREDITS
Austin-Uvalde County was included this week in a list of 224 counties released by Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander where businesses can apply for hundreds of millions of dollars in state tax breaks next year. The franchise tax credits for economic development were enacted in 1999 by the 76th Legislature and include a research credit, a job creation credit and an investment credit. " All three tax credits are real and businesses large and small will benefit," Rylander said. "The total dollar amount of the tax breaks will depend on how many businesses take advantage of this tremendous tax credit program."
TOYOTA PLANNERS MEET WITH CONSULTANT ON LURING SUPPLY COMPANIES
At a meeting held Monday in the County Courtroom at the Uvalde County Courthouse, John Hockemyos of Texas Perspectives Inc., an Austin consulting firm, discussed his company’s proposal for providing economic development technical assistance in attracting supply companies associated with Toyota.
Dan Eason of the Uvalde Area Development Foundation told the group that the Toyota plant would be bringing 2,000 jobs to San Antonio, but the suppliers “are going to bring 5,000 jobs to the area.”
“These suppliers aren’t all going to locate just in San Antonio because they don’t want to compete with Toyota for jobs,” Eason noted. “So, most of them are considering locating 45 to 100 miles around the city.”
“The main thing for Uvalde to do is define who you are to the suppliers – what existing buildings do you have, what are your utility rates and what incentives are you offering,” Hockemyos explained.
“Then you have to identify the suppliers and direct contact with them is expensive and time-consuming,” he continued. “It’s more efficient to work with the economic development people in San Antonio to find out who wants to locate outside of that city.”
Working with the economic development officials in San Antonio is the primary area of assistance on which Hockemyos will focus.
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