Published:
San Antonio Express-News
Date: February 26, 2008
By: Elaine Ayo
The City Council unanimously approved an ordinance at its Monday meeting nominating Rackspace as an enterprise project as part of a state sales tax rebate program.
Although it is not in a pre-existing state-established enterprise zone, Rackspace is eligible for the Texas Enterprise Zone Program because a minimum of 35 percent of new employees the company hires will live in census tracts deemed economically disadvantaged, said Christopher Shields, an Austin legislative consultant and tax attorney who spoke to the council about the program.
Rackspace qualifies as a "triple jumbo project" under the program because its capital investment in the area is more than $250 million. Designation as an enterprise project entitles the company to recoup more than $3 million in state sales taxes, Shields said.
"There's no cost to the local community," Shields said of the program that is state-funded but requires that companies be nominated by local government entities.
But resident Pamela Dodson grilled the council on what the city's commitment to the program would be.
"Could we have copies of the ordinance during the public hearing?" Dodson asked, questioning how residents would be able to ask questions about an ordinance the public hadn't seen.
City Manager Ronnie Cain said anyone could request a copy of the ordinance via an open records request.
Other residents expressed their excitement at the promise of the Rackspace project as a whole.
"It's the shot in the arm that we needed," resident Inge Geiger said.
In other news, the council passed an ordinance Monday that added three alternates to the city's Planning and Zoning Commission, citing the need to consistently have a quorum at regular and special meetings to keep up with new projects coming to the area.
After unanimously approving the ordinance, the council appointed Albert Garza Jr. to a three-year term, Todd Moore to a two-year term and Harold Woods to a one-year term as alternates on the commission, receiving the same $35-per-regular-meeting compensation as the other board members.
