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Tesla is considering Austin, Texas and Oklahoma for new plant. News is breaking on the Austin offer. Headline is $60 million. But there is so much more to this! (1/10) https://www.statesman.com/business/20200618/breaking-tesla-could-get-more-than-60-million-in-tax-breaks-to-choose-site-in-southeast-travis-county
Tesla has applied for a Chapter 313 abatement, a controversial program that mostly incentivizes oil and gas as well as renewables. School districts give out tax benefits, but the state pays for it. (2/10) https://news.utexas.edu/2017/04/17/texas-lawmakers-need-to-rethink-chapter-313/
Tesla applied for this incentive, which gives us a first look at the investment. Application here. (3/10)
https://assets.comptroller.texas.gov/ch313/1496/1496-del-colorado-app.pdf
https://assets.comptroller.texas.gov/ch313/1496/1496-del-colorado-app.pdf
This $500 million investment claims to create 5,000 high quality jobs. But in the application Tesla is only committing to 25 jobs at around $75,000 a year. That is the trick of this program. You can lowball to make sure you comply. Nobody fails on jobs in this program. (4/10)
In the application they state that Oklahoma is the competitor. But this program allows you to simply say you need to the money as well. So Tesla says the rate of return is higher with the tax abatement. Ah. Yes. That is true. (5/10)
They also included a terrible map on the location of the investment. (6/10)
They don't state it in their application, but this investment looks to be in a Federal Opportunity Zone as well. So Federal incentives could be part of the deal. (Map of Opportunity Zones below). (7/10)
And Travis County is considering unpausing their use of incentives for one single deal. So there was an agreement to stop using incentives. Until Musk came a knocking.
https://communityimpact.com/austin/southwest-austin-dripping-springs/government/2020/06/16/suspecting-deliberations-on-potential-tesla-deal-travis-county-union-representatives-weigh-in-on-use-of-economic-development-incentives/
(8/10)
https://communityimpact.com/austin/southwest-austin-dripping-springs/government/2020/06/16/suspecting-deliberations-on-potential-tesla-deal-travis-county-union-representatives-weigh-in-on-use-of-economic-development-incentives/
(8/10)
Finally, companies use local incentives to unlock state incentives. My guess is that the Texas Enterprise Fund will offer at least a $40 million grant, despite the very spotty record of this program. (9/10) https://theconversation.com/amazon-hq2-texas-experience-shows-why-new-yorkers-were-right-to-be-skeptical-111137
I'm really disappointed in our country for entertaining this. But one reason we know anything about the details is because folks like @dlavine have pushed for transparency in one of these programs (Chapter 313). (10/10)
