Good morning, 

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Brandon Waltens 

Monday, February 7, 2022
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• It’s not often that the Republican and Democrat parties of Texas agree. Yet when it comes to corporate welfare, both parties' platforms are very clearly in opposition.
   
• But after the Texas Legislature chose not to extend a massive corporate welfare program last year, House Speaker Dade Phelan says the Legislature will work to bring the controversial program back. 

• Chapter 313 of the Texas Tax Code allows school districts to offer large tax breaks for 10 years to renewable energy and other businesses (including the wind farms that infamously failed during last year’s winter storm...)
   

• The tax breaks come at no loss to the school districts. Instead, the state supplements the lost revenue to the districts from sales taxes and other state-collected taxes.
   

• The program has drawn criticism from both the right and left; both the Republican Party of Texas and the Democrat Party of Texas have called for the abolition of Chapter 313 abatements and corporate welfare in their party platforms.
   

• With the program set to expire at the end of 2022, two attempts were made during last year’s regular legislative session to keep the program going. 
   

• One effort by outgoing Republican Caucus Chairman State Rep. Jim Murphy of Houston would have not only extended the program for 10 years, but also would have expanded the types of projects eligible for the subsidies to existing companies that are simply doing “renovations, improvement, and modernization.”
   

• When that bill was considered in the Texas House in May, a bipartisan group of lawmakers worked to gut it, before the bill was postponed beyond the House’s deadline, effectively killing it. 
   

• Another bill by State Rep. Morgan Meyer (R–Dallas) to extend the program for another two years, however, was approved by House members. But when that bill reached the Senate, it met strong resistance.
   

• State Sen. Brian Birdwell (R–Granbury), who sponsored the bill in the Senate, amended it to extend the program for three years—to 2025. 
   

• During a committee hearing, State Sen. Lois Kolkhort blasted the program as having “run amok,” adding that she believed it was “time to start over with an absolute clean slate.”  Though it passed out of committee, it never received a vote from the full Senate.

• Right now, the 313 program is set to expire at the end of the year. But at a speaking event in San Antonio last week, House Speaker Dade Phelan said the Legislature would be working on “developing a program to replace Chapter 313, a crucial incentive program to attract businesses to Texas.”
   
• Barring a fourth special session, which can be called at any time by the governor, the Legislature is not slated to reconvene until January of 2023.

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