On June 16, 2015, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 100 (“S.B. 100”), which places renewed emphasis on incentivizing new job creation under the state’s Enterprise Zone Program (“Program”).
The bill, championed by Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, and Representative Jim Murphy, R-Houston, reflects changes to the Program that were recommended in a January 1, 2015 report issued by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and Tourism. The recommended changes are designed to induce eligible Texas communities to participate in the Program and to support the creation of new jobs.
S.B. 100 addresses those recommendations with the following changes to the Program:
- Emphasizing stronger incentives for job creation by limiting Double-Jumbo and Triple-Jumbo designations to projects that create new jobs
- Adding veterans to the categories of targeted employees in order to incentivize the hiring of honorably discharged veterans
- Allowing an enterprise project to have only one concurrent designation at any given time and not multiple concurrent designations occurring at the same designation period
- Creating half-designations to promote small businesses’ access to and participation in the Program
- Requiring an inter-local agreement for certain nominations made by a county for a project located within the jurisdiction of a municipality
Job retention projects will no longer qualify for Double-Jumbo or Triple-Jumbo designations. However, companies may qualify for single-designations and half-designations for qualifying job retention projects.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION CONTACTS:
Sharon Welhouse
Principal
Ryan
512.476.0022
sharon.welhouse@ryan.com
Adam Glatz
Manager
Ryan
512.476.0022
adam.glatz@ryan.com