08-23-04 La Porte Development Corporation Minutes

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Texas Economic Development .~centives 2003 Page 2 of 29 revenues. Generally, S4B expenditures are those available under S4A and projects that contribute to the quality of life in the community. Such projects include building park- related facilities, professional and amateur sports and athletic facilities, tourism and entertainment facilities, affordable housing and any other improvement or facility that promotes new or expanded business enterprises. The 1999 Legislature added job training, targeted infrastructure, job creation and retention, and educational facilities to the definition of project. This expanded the allowable uses of economic development sales tax revenues. At the end of fiscal 2001, 324 cities had S4B economic development corporations. [3] The largest S4B city is Fort Worth, with a population of more than half a million.[4] The smallest S4B city is Primera, with a population of 52. The average population of S4B cities is 13,405. At least three cities, Arlington, Celeste and Kirbyville, have notified the Comptroller's office that they wish to stop collecting the S4B sales tax. The city of Arlington collected $22 million in S4B sales tax revenues in fiscal 2001. This represented slightly more than 10 percent of all S4B corporations. Annual Reports to the Comptroller In 1997, H.B. 1410 added S4C to the Act. Section 4C requires all S4A and S4B development corporations to file an annual report with the Comptroller's office by February 1. The report is based on the corporation's previous fiscal year and is limited to one page in length. The Comptroller's office developed a one-page form used by development corporations to fulfill the reporting requirements. In 2002, the report was made available on the Comptroller's office Web site, at http://www.window.state.tx.us/lga/edcform.html. The report requires the corporation to include the primary economic development objectives, total revenues and expenditures for the preceding fiscal year, types of revenues and expenditures, and a list of the corporation's capital assets. The first report was submitted to the 1998 Legislature and contained fiscal 1997 data. The second report to the Legislature was prepared in 2000 and contained data for fiscal 1998 and 1999. The 2002 report to contains data from the corporations' fiscal 2000 and 2001JS] In December 2000 and 2001, the Comptroller's office mailed out reporting forms to all current ~4A and S4B corporations, as well as to cities that held successful elections for the adoption of a sales tax in the previous year. All 490 corporations returned completed forms to the Comptroller's office for fiscal 2000. All 523 corporations surveyed for fiscal 2001 submitted their reports as well. This marks five straight years of 100 percent compliance by the development corporations. Every year since the adoption of the economic development sales tax, the number of cities adopting the tax has increased. In fiscal 2000, 490 corporations returned completed report http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/ecodev03/06ch3 .html 9/27/2004