Published: June 04, 2008 10:40 am            

City to press for incentive policy

Tax abatements will attract business, mayor says

By Leia Jobe

reporter2@trcle.com



The Keene City Council will meet with an economic development expert Thursday to discuss adopting a tax abatement policy for the city.

Diana Miller, Johnson County’s director of economic development, will help the council with its tax abatement policy.

Tax abatements are one kind of incentive program cities and counties can offer to businesses.

Mayor Roy Robinson said the city wants to adopt an incentive program in Keene to attract more businesses to the area.

“We know expansion’s coming sooner or later,” Robinson said. “We need to get some sort of incentive program in place.”

The city wants to be competitive with other cities for development, Robinson said.

“Several of the cities in Johnson County do not have an actual policy in place. You have to have those policies in place before you can provide incentives,” Miller said.

She said she has been contacted by two companies who want to come to Johnson County. Though many Johnson County’s cities have tax abatement policies in place, she wants all of them to have a policy in place when a company indicates interest in locating in a city.

“It’s strictly up to the council to make these decisions and put these policies in place, but I’d rather be prepared,” she said.

Alvarado, Joshua, Burleson, Cleburne and the county have tax abatement policies, Miller said.

She said Godley is working on a policy, and she plans to work with Venus, Rio Vista, Grandview and Cresson soon to create and adopt incentive policies.

Keene had a tax abatement program, but the plan lapsed after two years.

“The guidelines they have are not in effect,” Miller said. “I brought that to their attention, and that’s what we’ll be discussing.”

Miller found out the policy wasn’t in effect because she was trying to verify that all Johnson County cities had up-to-date tax abatement policies, she said.

Robinson said he thinks the policy was first adopted in about 2000 or 2002. He was elected to the council in November 1999.

“Even though it’s kind of expired now, at least we had laid the groundwork for this in the past,” Robinson said.

The council can adopt the old tax abatement policy, change it or create a whole new policy.

“It’s strictly up to the council,” Miller said.

If the council decides it wants to adopt a tax abatement policy, it could do it as soon as Thursday night, she said.

The council meets at 7 p.m. Thursday in the city hall council chambers at 100 N. Mockingbird.

        

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