10-02-04 City Council Retreat Agenda

Browse Search

. . . Now, therefore, be it resolved that Harris County does hereby adopt these Guidelines and Criteria for granting tax abatement in reinvestment zones in Harris County. Section I DEFINITIONS (a) "Abatement" means the full or partial exemption from ad valorem taxes of certain real or personal property in a reinvestment zone designated for economic development purposes. (b) "Eligible Jurisdiction" means Harris County and any municipality, school district, college district or other taxing district eligible to abate its taxes according to Texas law that levies ad valorem taxes upon and provides services to property located within the proposed or existing reinvestment zone. (c) "Agreement" means a contractual agreement between a property owner and/or lessee and an eligible jurisdiction for the purposes of tax abatement. (d) "Base Year Value" means the assessed value of eligible property January I preceding the execution of the agreement plus the agreed upon value of eligible property improvements made after January 1 but before the execution of the agreement, or the sales price, if the property was conveyed subsequent to January 15\ whichever is greater. (e) "Competitively-sited project" means a project where the applicant has studied competing locations for expansion, relocation, or new operations, has identified specific properties or areas of interest in those locations, and is therefore able to evaluate operating cost differentials and incentives available. (f) "Economic Life" means the number of years a property improvement is expected to be in service in a facility. (g) "Employee" means a person whose employment is both permanent and fulltime, who works for and is an employee of the Owner or an employee of a Contractor, who works a minimum of 1,750 hours per year, works exclusively within the Zone, whose employment is reflected in the Owner's or Contractor's quarterly TWC report, and who receives industry-standard benefits, excluding any direct contract employees, seasonal employees, or part-time employees. (h) "Deferred Maintenance" means improvements necessary for continued operations which do not improve productivity or alter the process technology. (i) "Expansion" means the addition of buildings, structures, fixed machinery or equipment for purposes of increasing production capacity. U) "Facility" means property improvements completed or in the process of construction which together comprise an integral whole. HARRIS COUNTY GUIDELINES AND CRITERIA FOR GRANTING TAX ABA TEM ENT PAGE 2