Texas
Companies say they’re being denied Texas tax breaks as a state agency is overwhelmed with applications
![Companies say they’re being denied Texas tax breaks as a state agency is overwhelmed with applications](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/Z14rOt6mkqwteArZ9tvSbJIjAFY=/1200x630/filters:quality(95):focal(0x0:3000x2000)/static.texastribune.org/media/files/57d1aca7e3789dcf4af6fd535933d849/0922%20Glenn%20Hegar%20EG%20TT%2011.jpg)
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Days earlier than the expiration of a state program that gives billions of {dollars} in property tax breaks to companies shifting to Texas, two firms have gone to court docket arguing they’re being frozen out from the last-minute financial savings attributable to an overwhelmed state company.
The 2 renewable vitality firms say the Texas comptroller’s workplace, which critiques the purposes to the company relocation or growth incentive program, has denied their requests for greater than $20 million in tax financial savings as a result of the company can’t deal with the variety of entities searching for approval for tax incentives earlier than the Dec. 31 deadline.
In 2021, the Legislature opted to let this system, often known as Chapter 313, die after complaints that it amounted to “company welfare.” However firms authorised for the financial savings in 2022 can nonetheless obtain them for 10 years, and tons of of firms searching for to beat the deadline have flooded the comptroller’s workplace with requests for the tax breaks.
Stetson Renewables Holdings LLC and Ogallala Renewable Venture LLC submitted their purposes in Could 2022. In a request to the Texas Supreme Courtroom filed Tuesday, their attorneys mentioned Comptroller Glenn Hegar knowledgeable them that the Chapter 313 purposes have been acquired earlier than the deadline they usually have been eligible for incentives.
However after eligibility is decided, the comptroller’s workplace is required to conduct an financial affect analysis on the appliance inside 90 days, the businesses say. The attorneys asserted that Hegar failed to finish the evaluation in time, which resulted within the purposes’ denial.
“Thus, regardless of having an obligation that the Comptroller ‘should’ take motion inside 90 days, the Comptroller has used the expiration of that 90 day interval as the rationale for not offering the financial affect analysis in any respect and for not issuing a certificates,” the attorneys say of their submitting.
In a press release Tuesday, Hegar mentioned his workplace has seen an “extraordinary variety of purposes from firms searching for to safe an incentive underneath the present program.”
He famous his workers needed to handle a workload that has considerably elevated previously six months, regardless of no further staffing help from the Legislature.
The businesses filed Chapter 313 purposes for wind and photo voltaic vitality tasks positioned in 5 totally different unbiased faculty districts throughout Texas: Bynum ISD, Hart ISD, Holliday ISD, Miller Grove ISD and Sulphur Springs ISD. They have been knowledgeable of their denials final week. They declare within the submitting that their purposes have been rejected, despite the fact that some firms — together with the electrical automotive firm Tesla, owned by Elon Musk — utilized for the financial savings after them and have been nonetheless authorised. Tesla utilized for the tax break to construct a plant that produces battery-grade lithium hydroxide.
“The Comptroller’s failure to carry out his statutory obligations and challenge Certificates is jeopardizing roughly $773,550,000 in proposed capital investments in Texas, $27,001,784 in projected incentives, and projected minimal tax and different funds of $29,676,6001 to the college districts,” the submitting says.
Based on the businesses’ purposes filed with the college districts named within the letter, the 5 tasks would end result within the creation of six full-time positions. The businesses requested a waiver of the job creation requirement in every of their purposes.
Beneath the Chapter 313 program, manufacturing and vitality firms apply to native faculty districts for a 10-year low cost on their property tax payments in change for constructing or increasing locally and, in quite a few circumstances, creating new jobs. The Texas comptroller’s workplace should additionally approve these agreements.
There’s no draw back for varsity districts to approve the tax breaks, as a result of any foregone income for public colleges is made up for by the state. That shift of state {dollars}, critics say, leaves much less cash on the desk for different state companies, similar to well being care or public security.
Faculties may signal agreements straight with the businesses for a supplemental cost in change for approving the tax break, which fosters inequity in funding amongst faculty districts, critics say.
“It’s shameful to take cash from schoolchildren to line the pockets of those rich firms,” mentioned Bishop John Ogletree of The Metropolitan Group in Houston, in a press release Tuesday opposing a unique firm’s Chapter 313 utility to Gregory-Portland ISD.
Hegar mentioned his workplace will certify greater than 300 tasks this yr. He criticized the businesses’ request of the state’s Supreme Courtroom with roughly two weeks left within the yr.
“Regardless of receiving billions of {dollars} in property tax abatements over the lifetime of this system and probably billions extra in authorised incentives simply this yr, these firms and their attorneys are asking Texas taxpayers to shoulder much more regardless of the Legislature’s choice to discontinue this system,” Hegar mentioned in a press release.
Jolie McCullough contributed to this story.
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Texas
City Councilmen address Texas Ethics Commission findings
![City Councilmen address Texas Ethics Commission findings](https://gray-kauz-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/MKHYF5PNWFDNXFCF6P5EXLI4KY.jpg?auth=dca68a5d71827a71406148cf7d486674c20fbc37472be048e2d5dfd7b19fe559&width=1200&height=600&smart=true)
WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) – After five months of looking into complaints made against Wichita Falls City Council members in January, the Texas Ethics Commission has resolved the issue.
Tim Short, Tom Taylor, Jeff Browning, and Mike Battaglino all have agreed to pay a $500 Civil Penalty.
Cathy Dodson, who ran for the City Council District 3 seat in last year’s general election filed the complaints to the T.E.C.
“A non-profit cannot be involved in politics, the Wichita Falls Firefighter Association couldn’t list it that would be illegal,” Cathy Dodson said.
She told crews back in January that she had sufficient evidence to prove the four men took money from the Wichita Falls Firefighter Association PAC.
After notifying the council of their finding, they released a statement:
“The PAC provided written notice of this in-kind contribution on April 21, 2024. All four of us have now corrected our reports to disclose the in-kind contributions. Our joint settlement also states that the parties neither admit or deny the findings of the fact and conclusions of law described. We have paid the small civil penalty and made the bookkeeping adjustments. As a group, we look to move forward for the betterment of the city of Wichita Falls,” City Council Members said.
The city also added, at least six other complaints to the Ethics Commission regarding the same issues were dismissed.
Copyright 2024 KAUZ. All rights reserved.
Texas
Fort Worth's Sky Elements Will Be Droning North Texas with Fourth of July Celebrations
![Fort Worth's Sky Elements Will Be Droning North Texas with Fourth of July Celebrations](https://s24806.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Sky-Elements-record-setting-2023-July-4th-drone-show-Photo-Sky-Elements.jpg)
A moment from Sky Elements’ record-setting 2023 July 4th drone show [Photo: Sky Elements]
Last month, the Fort Worth-based drone light show company Sky Elements put their dazzling nighttime sky skills on national TV with an appearance on “America’s Got Talent,” earning a “golden buzzer” from Simon Cowell himself.
The 400-foot-tall, 300-foot wide display in the skies outside the the show’s studio featured a rocket liftoff and an image of Cowell in the sky as a waving, space-walking astronaut, capped by the AGT logo.
“It was really patriotic,” Cowell told the Sky Elements team after the demonstration. “And I think the way you told the story, the use of music, whether you’re 3 years old, whether you’re 100 years old, I think you’re absolutely going to love that audition.”
You can watch that AGT clip here for a cool, behind-the-scenes look at how the team’s drone show takes off.
See for yourself this coming week
Or you can watch Sky Elements in action yourself all over North Texas in the next week:
Tomorrow, Saturday June 29 at Toyota Stadium, Sky Elements will give a performance during FC Dallas’ 7:30 p.m. game against FC Cincinnati.
On Wednesday July 3, Sky Elements will perform Fourth of July shows in two local cities. The first will be the Denton Independence Day celebration at Quakertown Park, with “flight times” at 9:15 p.m. and 11 p.m.
The second will be held Wednesday during day 1 of a 2-day Sparks & Stripes celebration in Irving, with a drone and fireworks show at 9:20 p.m. at Levy Event Plaza over Lake Carolyn.
First drone light show to get FAA fireworks approval
![](https://s24806.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Pyro-drone-show-by-Sky-Elements-Video-still-Sky-Elements.png)
“Pyro drone show” with fireworks on drones by Sky Elements [Video still: Sky Elements]
In May, Sky Elements announced that it had become “the first U.S.-based drone light show company to receive FAA approval to attach fireworks to drones.”
The company had been working on obtaining the waiver for 26 months before the FAA finally granted its approval. The FAA green light allows Sky Elements to legally attach and launch fireworks from drones during their shows, creating what they call “pyro drone shows.”
It’s not the first time Sky Elements has made history. On Fourth of July 2023, the company snagged a Guinness World Records title for the largest aerial formation of words created by drones (by using 1,002 drones). Then last December, the company broke two more Guiness World Records with a 1,499-drone show in North Richland Hills.
And when Major League Cricket held its historic opening night last July in Grand Prairie, Sky Elements was there to mark the occasion with a drone light show.
Not just all over North Texas—all over the U.S., too
The DFW shows coming next week are just a glimmer of the stunning amount of events Sky Elements is booked for across the U.S. You can check out the company’s master list of performances by going here—including a patriotically astounding amount of shows it’s doing around this year’s July 4th.
Get on the list.
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Texas
Massive dust plume from Sahara Desert to bring hazy skies to Florida, Texas
![Massive dust plume from Sahara Desert to bring hazy skies to Florida, Texas](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1024/512/FOX-Model-Wide-with-Dust-Tracker.png?ve=1&tl=1)
A new tropical disturbance is now being monitored for development in the eastern Atlantic Ocean just in the wake of Invest 95L, which is on the cusp of becoming a tropical depression or Tropical Storm Beryl.
HOUSTON — A massive plume of dust from Africa’s Saharan Desert is blowing across the entire Atlantic Ocean this week, set to reach the shores of Florida and Texas in the coming days and casting a haze over typically blue skies.
The plume is currently forecast to skirt South Florida late Friday night into early Saturday morning, then push into the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend.
Eventually, the plume is forecast to move into Southeast Texas Sunday into Monday, with Corpus Christi and perhaps Houston likely to see some of the effects.
Coastal communities along the Florida Peninsula and the Gulf Coast are accustomed to seeing plumes of Saharan dust over the summer, which can impact air quality, produce colorful sunrises and sunsets, and reduce the chances of precipitation.
182 million tons of dust a year carried away from Africa
As daily triple-digit heat bakes the Saharan Desert, hot, dry air rises from the surface and carries fine particles of dust from the sands. That dust-laden air climbs to the highest reaches of the atmosphere, where winds called the Easterlies or Trade Winds (blowing from east to west) carry that dust about 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean into the Western Hemisphere in what’s known as the Saharan Air Layer (SAL).
5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE SAHARAN DUST PLUME
According to NASA, about 182 million tons of dust leave Africa every year, though that amount can vary depending on the amount of rainfall south of the Sahara region.
![FOX Model Wide with Dust Tracker](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/668/376/FOX-Model-Wide-with-Dust-Tracker.png?ve=1&tl=1)
Depending on the amount of dust being carried by the plume, air quality can be drastically affected. This means that people who have certain types of breathing problems can experience difficulty. People in the path of the plume can also experience eye, nose and throat irritation because of the fine dust particles in the air, according to WebMD.
The dry air from the hot, sandy desert also works to suppress tropical development and significant plumes of dust and dry air are common in the Atlantic during the first two and a half months of the hurricane season.
![Saharan Dust Trend](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/668/376/Saharan-Dust-Trend.png?ve=1&tl=1)
However, the current situation is a bit unusual in that there is quite a bit of tropical activity percolating in the Atlantic even with a significant dust layer.
Invest 95L and another tropical disturbance just to its east are holding positions just south of the dust layer, and are feeding off available moisture to their south to skirt the edges of the dust layer as they trek west.
However, the dust layer may become an important variable in the storms’ future development depending on their track.
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