The Bryan ISD will consultants to assist in the consideration of a proposed economic development agreement with America’s Foundry Bryan LLC, the company behind a possible semiconductor plant.
The estimated cost of the consultants will be around $30,000, but according to school district officials, this money would come from America’s Foundry Bryan LLC, not the taxpayers. Last week Assistant Superintendent of Business Service Kevin Beesaw spoke about the proposal and said that the funding for the consultants came directly from the company’s tax abatement application fee.
“The application fee that’s paid by the company that filed the application with the comptroller was $30,000,” he said. “That amount is split to the consultants and so basically, the district acts as a pass-through. We’re not paying anything for this.”
In late June, both the Bryan City Council and the Brazos County Commissioners Court approved similar tax abatement agreements for the semiconductor project. According to the documentation regarding the agreements, the manufacturing facility could be worth an estimated $10 billion and potentially double the taxable income of Bryan.
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Shortly after the city and the county approved their agreements with America’s Foundry Bryan LLC, filings to the Office of Texas Comptroller of Accounts — first obtained by the Austin Business Journal — confirmed that the manufacturing plant was related to the production of semiconductors. The documentation included an economic impact analysis report that showed a total capital investment of over $108 billion across the next 40 years.
The proposed abatement agreement with Bryan ISD would provide incentives under the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovations (JETI) Act which became law last year and would provide incentives for large businesses that decide to set up shop in Texas.
Since the JETI Act is still relatively new, the school board wants the hired consultants to help the district understand the possible implications of such an agreement, Beesaw said.
“We’re not asking for any action today on the application itself,” Beesaw told the school board. “What we’re asking for is to contract with the firms [consultants] that you see listed there to guide us through this process and help us with the understanding of the legal and the economic impacts.”
According to documentation attached to the school board agenda, the two consulting firms will be MoakCasey, LLC and O’Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo. Each firm would receive $15,000 from the total of $30,000 available from the application fee.
