DEPARTMENT: Economic Development
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Rene Dominguez
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City-wide
SUBJECT:
EDD Preliminary 2019-2020 Tax Abatement Guideline Updates
SUMMARY:
The Economic Development Department (EDD) will present draft recommended updates to the 2019-2020 Tax Abatement Guidelines. In addition, EDD will present preliminary findings reported by its consultant, EPS, on relevant national best practices regarding inclusive growth and initial feedback from national site selectors on integrating these principles into an economic development industry recruitment and retention policy.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
San Antonio has seen strong growth and has enjoyed a number of accolades from national publications and think tanks for our overall economic performance, entrepreneurial growth, and millennial population growth. San Antonio has also seen record low unemployment in recent quarters, as well as stable job growth in targeted industries per the recent SA2020 Impact Report.
Despite this strong economic growth, educational attainment rates and wage levels still remain below state and national averages and when elements such unemployment are disaggregated along lines of geography, race, and education level, the growth in job opportunities and the seemingly broad pathway to prosperity narrows for large portions of San Antonio's population. According to the Economic Innovation Group 2017 Distressed Communities Index (DCI), Bexar County ranked 14th in the United States in total number of people living in distressed zip codes estimated at 412,000 or 22.6% of the population.
San Antonio's long-term competitiveness depends heavily on ensuring that we remain competitive for good-paying targeted industry jobs while creating pathways for residents to participate in a growing high-performing economy with a specific focus on defined areas of opportunity. San Antonio has long been a proponent of growth strategies that connect targeted populations an...
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