The City Council will consider a bevy of economic issues during its meeting Thursday, including a tax-abatement agreement with Samsung Austin Semiconductor and adopting the fiscal year 2023 budget.
The regular meeting is 6 p.m. in Council Chambers, 400 Porter St., and is followed by a special-called session to approve two items regarding the Samsung chipmaking plant off of Texas 79.
Those items during the special meeting include approving a “final project and financing plan” for a tax increment reinvestment zone and nominating Samsung for participation in the Texas Enterprise Zone Program.
Other items up for discussion during the regular meeting include:
• Funding for the construction and design of a new ramp at the Taylor Municipal Airport.
• The possible creation of a neighborhood empowerment zone.
• Discussion of a zoning change at 3811 N. Main St. from rural/ agricultural and local business to multifamily residential with a residential planned development overlay.
• A review of the number of positions in the Fire Department.
Also during a review of the city’s budget, which by law must be in place by Oct. 1, will be setting the upper limit for property taxes for 2022.
• Though much of the council’s deliberations will revolve around Samsung, a city spokeswoman said the discussions are just another step in a long process that began November 2021 when Samsung announced its intent to build a $17 billion semiconductor fabrication facility southwest of the city.
At Thursday’s meeting, the council will review changes to a TIRZ that makes up part of the more than 1,200-acre site Samsung is building on. “There were additional properties that had not closed in time for the original agreement,” said Taylor spokeswoman Stacey Osborne. She added TIRZ allows future taxes developed in a particular zone to go back to the area as an economic incentive; the funds are plowed back into the enterprise to spur growth and bolster the local economy. “What the TIRZ is, is it’s just basically a mechanism to explain how we are going to use the taxes that are generated on a piece of land and usually if there’s nothing in place,” Osborne said. “If a person pays their property taxes, they just go into a general fund. We want the taxes that are generated on a particular property … to go back to that property.”
Several steps are involved, she added.
“You can’t just designate an area a tax reinvestment zone,” Osborne said. “You have to have a public hearing first, and then people have 30 days to comment on it, and then you have to go back through and actually make it the reinvestment zone based on whether you got the comments, and whether that’s approved.”
The process is based on state statutes, she said.
“So it’s kind of a long process, and it’s designed that way under Texas law, so this is the completion of what was begun back in November when they made the agreement with Samsung,” Osborne said.
