We’re not paying for the jobs but the name
I love it when cheerleaders business columnists make statements without bothering to provide any support or explanation for them.
If the city did not receive this CPS Energy revenue, city property tax rates would be higher. Since 1942, CPS Energy revenue has contributed more than $3.4 billion to city coffers.
I really don’t follow the logic. According Hendricks, every CPS customer pays fourteen percent into the city’s annual fund.
That eventually will defray the $20.7 million value of the city’s property tax abatement to Microsoft.
Uh, that means we’re paying to defray for the city’s tax abatement to Microsoft as well. Then there’s the following statement about offering aid to attract similar businesses:
If a company can put up Microsoft-type numbers, the door is open.
The only “numbers” I’m familiar with are the 75 jobs, 425 short of the usual 500 required for such tax abatements, that has been promised by Microsoft. So does this mean any company can come in and offer 75 jobs and get a tax abatement from the city and infrastructure support from CPS? Of course not. What he means is that if a company with a big name comes in and offers 75 jobs we’ll bend over backwards for them it.
The pathetic funny thing is that the areas that are being help up as examples received the development for nothing.
Unlike San Antonio, Quincy did not offer any incentives to lure Microsoft or any of the other data center companies there. Neither did the state.”It was nothing that we went out and recruited,” Connelly said.
In fact, the article emphasizes that the critical factor in locating such centers is the availability of inexpensive power.
And then there is the questions of why exactly does Westover Hills need any sort of economic incentive zones. Apparently we gave the Lowe’s data center a ten year tax abatement for 25 to 30 jobs. However, that number seems to have somehow inched up to be “up to one hundred jobs” for justifying the tax break. Do you think anyone will check in five years to see exactly how many people Lowe’s is employing in its data center?
I can see where this is going. In a few years we’ll be paying Google to let us put their name on the Alamo dome. That way we don’t have to worry about investing in areas the contribute to our quality of life such as transportation planning and development, parks, libraries, soccer fields, the arts, educational opportunities, and the like. All we care about is name recognition, right?
Technorati Tags: Microsoft Data Center, San Antonio, San Antonio Data Center, Economic Development, Tax Abatement, David Hendricks
Filed under: David Hendricks, Economic develpoment, Lowe's, Microsoft, San Antonio, San Antonio Economic Development Foundation, Uncategorized, data center, eocnomic incentives
