sweeten the deals even further by waiving all school district maintenance and operationswhile a project is under construction. The tax break could kick in as soon as shovels hit the dirt and last up to 10 years, and that's on top of the baseline 10-year tax break offered under the program, which would start after construction is completed.
Republicans — including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Texas Senate and played a major role in Chapter 313’s demise two years agohave zeroed in on excluding renewable energy projects from the new program, even though the vast majority University of Texas at Austin professor Nate Jensen, an expert on Chapter 313, said he was shocked by the similarities between HB 5 and its predecessor, given how much lawmakers criticized the old program in 2021. For instance, under the new proposal school boards would still be incentivized to sign on to the tax breaks — the state will pick up the tab for any lost tax revenue, and the districts can keep part of the companies' tax savings.
The bill emerged from the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee with several notable tweaks from, including a change in the “tiers” used to determine how many jobs a project has to create, how much it can be taxed and how much a company must invest in a project before tax breaks kick in.