On March 14th the City of Katy city council approved and passed a resolution authorizing the Katy Economic Development Council to enter into an economic development agreement with Buc-ee’s LTD for trio of financial incentives that will easily top in excess of two million, three hundred thousand dollars ($2,300,000) over the next twenty (20) years.
Under the terms of the agreement the Katy Economic Development Authority will rebate payments to Buc-ee’s Ltd from sales taxes and property taxes derived from the construction of a new Buc-ee’s Travel Center & pay a reimbursement to defray road engineering costs.
The first incentive –an “Authority Sales Tax Payment”—will be paid to Buc-ee’s Ltd from sales taxes actually collected from the property for a period of twenty (20) years. The second incentive is derived through the growth of actual ad valorem taxes collected from the property. (As a homeowner in Katy or elsewhere in Fort Bend County you’re getting a rebate on the amount your property taxes have grown too, right?). Buc-cee’s will receive this property tax increment payment each year until aggregate payments total $2,000,000.
Lastly, and to add further insult to Katy and other Fort Bend County homeowners, the Katy Economic Development Authority will reimburse the developer of the Buc-ee’s Ltd Travel Center for up to $300,000 in engineering costs associated with an 1-10 off ramp and road frontage project with TxDot.
Read it all here. Buc-ee’s Economic Development Agreement
Wow, never know what those bathrooms cost!
Would be interesting to hear how the Katy City Council justifies this agreement to the taxpayers. If they don’t wish to respond to Big Jolly on the matter, maybe the Katy taxpayers will have to make the council members pay restitution at the ballot box……I’m just sayin……..
You’re assuming Katy city council asked questions about how the payments were estimated,
Katy wanted to make sure they didn’t lose the deal, unlike the Costco that went into the City of Houston tax area. Katy still comes out ahead compared to a large empty lot.
The big empty lot argument has something going for it, but the question is would Buc-ees have built without the incentive. It’s not like a Costco, where you can put a store up anywhere. A travel center has to be strategically located, and I assume the Katy area met their criteria.
An interesting question is, what were Buc-ees’ alternatives and who else was willing to subsidize them.
Also, were there mechanisms for Katy taxpayers to have known about this in advance? Open meeting requirements, budget approval process, etc.
I learned of the agreement by reading the Katy city council meeting agendas on the City of Katy website
The big empty lot argument is just another way to subsidize business with taxpayer funds. we are supposed to have one set of laws for all taxpayers. If a commercial owner gets a break for building so then should a residential owner.
And the COSTCO in south county here got tax breaks it did not deserve.