The Problem With Jon Stewart to Cover Texas IAF Effort to Stem Corporate Tax Breaks at Expense of Students
Last summer, Texas IAF leaders and nonprofit allies shut down Chapter 313 (a state tax exemption program giving away close to a billion dollars per year to major industrial and petrochemical companies). Since then, over 400 corporate applications have flooded the system ahead of the program's expiration date at the end of this year -- more than twice as many as before.
Reverend Minerva Camarena Skeith of Central Texas Interfaith/Texas IAF explains to Jon Stewart the impact of state legislation that allows major corporations to siphon off state funding that could otherwise go to public schools.
The Problem with Jon Stewart will air this episode on Friday, October 21st.
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Additional background on Texas IAF effort:
Texas' Largest Corporate Welfare Program Is Leaving Companies Flush and School Districts Broke, Texas Observer
Huge Corporations are Saving $10 Billion on Texas Taxes, and You're Paying For It, Houston Chronicle
Sapped by Subsidies: 313 Deals Hurt Texas Cities, Dallas Morning News [pdf]
No More Hogs at the Trough-Containing Corporate Subsidies in Texas, Nonprofit Quarterly
The Unlikely Demise of Texas' Biggest Corporate Tax Break, Texas Observer
Texas IAF Blocks $10 Billion Dollar Corporate Tax Giveaway to Big Oil
[Excerpts]
When organizers set out to overturn Texas’s giveaway program for the oil and gas industry, they had a long game in mind. Over 20 years, the tax exemption program known as Chapter 313 had delivered $10 billion in tax cuts to corporations operating in Texas — with petrochemical firms being the biggest winners. This year, for the first time in a decade, the program was up for reauthorization. Organizers decided to challenge it for the first time.
At the beginning of last week, as Texas’s biennial legislative session approached its end, the aims of organizers remained modest. “We thought it would be a victory if the two-year reauthorization passed so we could organize in interim,” said Doug Greco, the lead organizer for Central Texas Interfaith, one of the organizations fighting to end the subsidy program.
At 4 a.m. last Thursday, it became clear that something unexpected was happening: The deadline for reauthorization passed. “The bill never came up,” Greco told The Intercept. Organizers stayed vigilant until the legislative session officially closed on Monday at midnight, but the reauthorization did not materialize....
“No one had really questioned this program,” said Greco, of Central Texas Interfaith. The reauthorization was a once-in-a-decade chance to challenge it. “We knew in our guts that the program was just a blank check, but we also are very sober about the realities of the Texas legislature.”
....As legislators met in a closed session to hammer out the bill, Greco heard from a colleague. “One of my organizers said there’s 20 oil and gas lobbyist standing outside this committee room,” he recalled.
Former Gov. Rick Perry, an Energy Transfer board member, tweeted his support for reauthorization. But as last week of the session ticked by, the bill didn’t come up. “It became clear that the reputation of the program had been damaged,” Greco said.
In 19 months, Texas’s subsidy program will expire, but that doesn’t mean the fight is over.
“We know there’s going to be a big conversation over the interim — we are under no illusions that this is not going to be a long-term battle.”
Organizers, though, recognize that the subsidy’s defeat marks a shift: “The table has been reset.”
Oil & Gas Companies Depend on Tax Subsidies and Job Creation Myths to Survive, Truthout
In Blow to Big Oil, Corporate Subsidy Quietly Dies in Texas, The Intercept [pdf]
Texas Legislature Dooms Chapter 331, Which Gives Tax Breaks to Big Businesses, Business Journal [pdf]
Missed Deadline Could Doom Controversial $10B Tax-Break Program, Houston Chronicle [pdf]
A Texas Law Offers Tax Breaks to Companies, but It's Renewal Isn't a Done Deal, Texas Tribune [pdf]
A Controversial Tax Program Promised High Paying Jobs. Instead, Its Costs Spiraled Out of Control, Houston Chronicle [pdf]
Losers and Winners from Chapter 313, Central Texas Interfaith
The Unlikely Demise of Texas’ Biggest Corporate Tax Break, Texas Observer [pdf]