Economic Development Guidelines

Your narrative summary should have a statement indicating that the information included is from the most recently completed fiscal year. Post a summary table or listing separately from audits and financial reports with the following items for tax abatements granted in the most recently completed fiscal year:

• Number of tax abatements granted in the most recently completed fiscal year.
• Estimated taxes abated in year one of agreements as total and per capita amounts.
• Estimated taxes abated for life of agreements.
• Number of jobs created/retained by agreements to date (up to the last day of the most recently completed fiscal year).
• Total capital investment received for agreements to date (up to the last day of the most recently completed fiscal year).

You may wish to include additional pieces of data that provide context reflective of standards or conventions particular to your entity type. See the sidebar for an optional Economic Development Summary Form: Cities Counties or Special Purpose Districts (PDF) to complete the Summary section.

Post data visualizations to your website showing the following:

• Number of tax abatements granted for previous five fiscal years.
• Amount of taxes abated for previous five fiscal years.

You may wish to include explanations or subsets of these trends in the visualizations or post additional visualizations that provide context reflective of standards or conventions particular to your entity type. See the sidebar for templates you may use to create required visualizations. The visualizations must be posted on the page itself or linked directly and must be — like all the required information on the transparency page or section — easy to view and interpret.

Post the following documents separately from audits and annual financial reports. You may also post a link to the Texas Comptroller’s 380/381 database for your entity.

• Economic development corporation project documents that contain the following:
  • Project goal.
  • Name of entity receiving project.
  • Cost of project.
  • Benefit to city/EDC.
• Chapter 380 agreements that contain the following:
  • Project goal.
  • Name of entity receiving project.
  • Cost of project.
  • Benefit to city.
• Tax abatement agreements:
  • Agreement contract.
  • Ordinance granting agreement.

Make the following data available for download in a spreadsheet format to aid in researching your entity:

• Tax abatement dataset containing items such as project names/goals, recipients, years granted, estimated total taxes abated and actual taxes abated.
• Chapter 380 agreements dataset containing items such as project names/goals, recipients, years granted, promised funding from city and actual funding from city.

Your transparency site should also include the following:

• Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Economic Development Corporation Report search tool.
• Applicable GASB guidance documents such as Statement No. 77 regarding tax abatement disclosures; links to applicable sections within financial statements.
• Other documents regarding economic development activities if available. Acceptable examples include but are not limited to non-annexation agreements and in-kind agreements.

Post an economic development summary that includes a narrative overview as well as these items for tax abatements granted in the most recently completed fiscal year:

• Number of tax abatements granted in the most recently completed fiscal year.
• Estimated taxes abated in year one of the agreements expressed as total and per capita amounts.
• Estimated taxes abated for life of agreements.
• Number of jobs created/retained by agreements to date (up to the last day of the most recently completed fiscal year).
• Total capital investment received for agreements to date (up to the last day of the most recently completed fiscal year).

You may wish to include additional pieces of data that provide context reflective of standards or conventions particular to your entity type. See the sidebar for an optional Economic Development Summary Form: Cities Counties or Special Purpose Districts (PDF) to complete the Summary section.

Post data visualizations to your website showing the following:

• Number of tax abatements granted for previous five fiscal years.
• Amount of taxes abated for previous five fiscal years.

You may wish to include explanations or subsets of these trends in the visualizations, or post additional visualizations that provide context reflective of standards or conventions particular to your entity type. See the sidebar for templates you may use to create required visualizations. The visualizations must be posted on the page itself or linked directly and must be — like all the required information on the transparency page or section — easy to view and to interpret.

The following documents are posted separately from audits and annual financial reports:

• County assistance project documents that contain:
  • Project goal.
  • Name of entity receiving project.
  • Cost of project.
  • Benefit to county/district.
• Chapter 381 agreements that contain:
  • Project goal.
  • Name of entity receiving project.
  • Cost of project.
  • Benefit to county.
• Tax abatement agreements:
  • Agreement contract.
  • Ordinance granting agreement.

Make the following data available for download in a spreadsheet or other machine-readable format to aid in researching your entity:

• Tax abatement dataset containing items such as project names/goals, recipients, years granted, estimated total taxes abated and actual taxes abated.
• Chapter 381 agreements dataset containing items such as project names/goals, recipients, years granted, promised funding from county and actual funding from county.

Your transparency site should also include the following:

• Applicable GASB guidance documents such as Statement No. 77 regarding tax abatement disclosures; links to applicable sections within financial statements.
• Other documents regarding economic development activities if available. Acceptable examples include but are not limited to non-annexation agreements and in-kind agreements.

Post an economic development summary that includes a narrative overview as well as these items for appraisal value limitation agreements entered into in the most recently completed fiscal year:

• Number of appraisal value limitation agreements entered into in the most recently completed fiscal year.
• Estimated tax forgone in year one of the agreements expressed as total and per student amounts.
• Estimated taxes forgone for life of agreements.
• Number of jobs projected to be created/retained by all existing agreements to date (up to the last day of the most recently completed fiscal year).
• Total estimated lifetime investment in all existing limitation agreements.

You may wish to include additional pieces of data that provide context reflective of standards or conventions particular to your entity type. You may use the optional Economic Development Summary Form: School Districts (PDF) to complete the Summary section.

Post data visualizations to your website showing the following:

• Number of value limitation agreements granted for previous five fiscal years.
• Amount of taxes forgone in previous five fiscal years.

You may wish to include explanations or subsets of these trends in the visualizations, or post additional visualizations that provide context reflective of standards or conventions particular to your entity type. See the sidebar for templates you may use to create required visualizations. The visualizations must be posted on the page itself or linked directly and must be — like all the required information on the transparency page or section — easy to view and to interpret.

Post the following documents separately from audits and annual financial reports:

• Value limitation agreements.
• Agreement contract.

Make the following data available for download in spreadsheet or other machine-readable format to aid in researching your entity:

• Value limitation dataset containing items such as project names/goals, agreement holders, payments in lieu of taxes, first year of tax benefit, estimated total taxes forgone and actual taxes forgone.

Your transparency site should also include the following:

• Applicable GASB guidance documents such as Statement No. 77 regarding disclosure of taxes forgone; links to applicable sections within financial statements.
• Other documents regarding economic development activities if available. Acceptable examples include but are not limited to non-annexation agreements and in-kind agreements.

Post an economic development summary that includes a narrative overview as well as these items for tax abatements granted in the most recently completed fiscal year:

• Number of tax abatements granted in most recently completed fiscal year.
• Estimated taxes abated in year one of the agreements expressed as total and per capita amounts.
• Estimated taxes abated for life of agreements.
• Number of jobs created/retained by agreements to date (up to the last day of the most recently completed fiscal year).
• Total capital investment received for agreements to date (up to the last day of the most recently completed fiscal year).

You may wish to include additional pieces of data that provide context reflective of standards or conventions particular to your entity type. You may use the optional Economic Development Summary Form: Cities Counties or Special Purpose Districts (PDF) to complete the Summary section.

Post data visualizations to your website showing the following:

• Number of tax abatements granted for previous five fiscal years.
• Amount of taxes abated for previous five fiscal years.

You may wish to include explanations or subsets of these trends in the visualizations or post additional visualizations that provide context reflective of standards or conventions particular to your entity type. See the sidebar for templates you may use to create required visualizations. The visualizations must be posted on the page or directly linked itself and must be — like all the required information on the transparency page or section — easy to view and to interpret.

Post the following documents separately from audits and annual financial reports:

• Tax abatement agreements.
• Agreement contract.
• Guidelines and criteria.

Make the following data available for download in a spreadsheet or other machine-readable format to aid in researching your entity:

• Tax abatement dataset containing items such as project names/goals, recipients, years granted, estimated total taxes abated and actual taxes abated.

Your transparency site should also include the following:

• Applicable GASB guidance documents such as Statement No. 77 regarding tax abatement disclosures; links to applicable sections within financial statements.
• Other documents regarding economic development activities if available. Acceptable examples include but are not limited to non-annexation agreements and in-kind agreements.