CTI Leaders Take Hard Stand Against NXP's Corporate Welfare Request to AISD
When NXP sprung a request for a Chapter 313 tax subsidy before the Austin Independent School District, Central Texas Interfaith leaders decided to descend upon a meeting of the Board of Trustees to ask them to reject the request. Chapter 313 tax subsidies are 10 year tax breaks to major gas, oil and manufacturing corporations that drain $1 Billion from state coffers on an annual basis. In response to a barrage of 20 CTI leaders testifying over the phone and in person against the tax giveaway, NXP (the company requesting the subsidy) changed the number of promised jobs on their application during the meeting from the statutory minimum of 25 to 500 overall.
[Excerpt]
The majority of community members who provided testimony on May 19 asked the board to vote against the Chapter 313 agreement with NXP. Many speakers were members of Central Texas Interfaith, a nonpartisan coalition of congregations, schools and unions that opposes Chapter 313.
“Hardworking taxpayers don’t get this kind of giveaway. Nor do small businesses, or responsible corporations,” said Central Texas Interfaith leader Trenton Henderson. “We want our money to go to public schools, but not to pay the bills for corporations shirking their responsibility to public education. Without a Chapter 313 agreement, NXP would have to pay their full share of school taxes.”
Austin ISD Moves Forward With Semi-Conductors Agreement, Faces Community Opposition, Community Impact [pdf]
Austin ISD Considering Proposal That Would Help Lower Recapture Payments, Faces Opposition, CBS Austin [pdf]
NXP Seeking Up To $140 Million in Tax Breaks for School Districts, Austin American Statesman [pdf]
Chapter 313 Incentives: What They Are and Why They're Suddenly the Talk of the Town, Austin Business Journal [pdf]
Statement on Austin ISD and Round Rock ISD Chapter 313 Votes, Central Texas Interfaith
Oped: Don't Ask Texas Schoolchildren to Fund Your Corporate Expansion, Austin Chronicle [pdf]
AISD Board Meeting Broadcast, Austin Independent School District [calls begin at -2:33:30, in-person testimony at -1:52:30]
CTI Opposes NXP Chapter 313 Application to AISD
For Immediate Release
Contact: Father Miles Brandon – 512-484-0590
May 18, 2022
Central Texas Interfaith Statement Opposing NXP Chapter 313 Application to AISD
It is shameful to take money from schoolchildren to line the pockets of multinational corporations. Central Texas Interfaith unequivocally opposes NXP’s request for 10-year tax abatement from AISD under the failed Chapter 313 program. During the 2021 Texas legislative session, Central Texas Interfaith and its Texas IAF sister organizations, with bi-partisan legislative support, stopped the reauthorization of Chapter 313, the state’s largest corporate welfare program which drains over $1Billion/year in potential money for public schools and lines the pockets of oil, gas, and manufacturing companies.
Hardworking taxpayers don’t get this type of giveaway, nor do small businesses or responsible corporations. We want our tax money to go to public schools, but not to pay the bill for corporations shirking their responsibility to public education. Without a Chapter 313 tax giveaway, NXP would have to pay its full share of school taxes, which would directly benefit Texas schoolchildren.
NXP’s Chapter 313 application was posted less than 24 hours before AISD Trustees are set to vote on it today. As a citizens’ organization, we are at a loss as to how we even have a public debate about accepting an application whose terms were made public just hours before a board meeting. We want good jobs, we want companies to expand in Austin, but we want NXP to pay their fair share of taxes to Texas schoolchildren like the rest of us.
• See our “Myths versus Realities” document on NXP’s request for a Chapter 313 giveaway.
community. https://www.austininterfaith.org
Central Texas Interfaith Opposes NXP $2.6 Billion Expansion
[Excerpt]
NXP Semiconductors, which is based in the Netherlands and has two fabrication plants in Austin, is seeking tax breaks from the Austin Independent School District under the state's Chapter 313 incentive program for proposed expansion. An initial presentation to the district's board Tuesday night didn't specify the amount, but previous incentives agreements from Texas school districts for similar Chapter 313 deals have been for tens of millions of dollars.
The Chapter 313 incentives program — which is named after a portion of the tax code — has been controversial. It's set to expire at the end of this year because state lawmakers declined to renew it during last year's legislative session, although deals struck before then won't be affected....
Under the Chapter 313 program, school districts are reimbursed by the state for the corporate tax breaks they agree to provide. That attribute has made Chapter 313 controversial among critics who say school districts have no reason not to grant them, and that the program siphons money from taxpayers statewide as handouts to corporations.
“There's no such thing as free money," said Doug Greco, lead organizer with Central Texas Interfaith, a group that opposes all Chapter 313 deals and has worked to help end the program.
“It's money that is being drained out of the state budget that could be going to schools," Greco said. "When you add these (deals) up, it's just a drain on the system that we can't sustain. Let's stop the gold rush here."
[Photo Credit: Mark Matson, Austin American Statesman]
Chipmaker NXP Considers Austin for $2.6 Billion Expansion, Up to 800 New Jobs, Austin American Statesman [pdf]