A data center seeking tax abatement must be located within a designated reinvestment zone and comply with the City’s zoning ordinance. Facilities must be within a designated reinvestment zone and conform to zoning.

Eligibility requires modernization, renovation, expansion, or construction of a new facility, plus satisfaction of the applicable economic-development criteria. A project at a new company must add at least $250,000 in real-property improvements, $500,000 in new personal property, or 12 new permanent jobs; an existing facility operating in the city for at least five years must add at least $150,000 in real-property improvements, $300,000 in new personal property, or 7 new permanent jobs. These investment and job thresholds apply.

The business must clearly add to the City’s economic base or have the potential to generate significant economic opportunities, and jobs used for qualification may not merely displace similar jobs in the City. The economic-base and job-displacement requirements apply.

The project must produce, manufacture, or distribute goods or services of which at least 50% are distributed outside Goliad County. The 50% outside-county requirement.

Certain property cannot receive abatement and must remain fully taxed, including inventories and supplies, tools, furnishings and other movable personal property, previously located tangible personal property, property with a productive life under ten years, and vehicles, aircraft, boats, and similar listed property. The ordinance lists ineligible property.

Leased or rented property is eligible only if the lessor and lessee provide written consent, the real-property owner also consents when applicable, and the lease term is at least five years. Lease-consent and term requirements.

The tax-abatement application must be filed, approved by the City Council, and followed by a negotiated and fully executed agreement before construction begins or project-related personal property is acquired. Pre-construction approval is required.

An applicant must pay a $250 filing fee and submit detailed project information, including improvement descriptions, maps, a legal property description, a construction schedule, added-value estimates, base-year value, job commitments, and financial-capacity information. The application fee and required documentation.

If the property is not already in a reinvestment zone, creating the zone requires a public hearing, published newspaper notice, notice to other taxing units at least seven days before the hearing, and a City Council ordinance with specified findings. The reinvestment-zone hearing and notice process.

A reinvestment-zone designation lasts five years, although the City Council may renew it for successive periods of up to five years; expiration does not affect an existing abatement agreement. The five-year zone term.

The City Council retains total, case-by-case discretion to grant or deny abatement, and the guidelines create no right to have an application considered or approved. Council discretion and no entitlement.

The abatement term cannot exceed ten years, and the City determines both the term and the portion of improvement value eligible for abatement. The ten-year maximum.

The owner must provide annual compliance certification, allow City inspections, and submit appraisal and employment documentation used to verify investment and job-retention commitments. Annual certification and inspection requirements.

The applicant must forgo protests, applications, negotiations, or other procedures that would challenge the county appraisal district’s annual assessed value. The waiver of assessed-value challenges.

The City may cancel the agreement, terminate abatement, or recapture previously abated taxes if the owner fails to complete improvements, fails to create required jobs, violates agreement terms, allows ineligible City taxes to become delinquent, relocates outside the zone, or stops producing goods or services for 180 days, subject generally to a 60-day cure notice. Default and recapture provisions.

Information and data centers are expressly identified as a target industry eligible for tax-abatement consideration when the project involves a new, modernized, renovated, or expanded facility within a designated reinvestment zone (information and data centers).

Eligible data-center projects may receive a full or partial exemption from city ad valorem taxes on qualifying added improvements, with the amount determined case by case (full or partial exemption).

The tax-abatement term may last up to 10 years, although the city determines the actual percentage and duration (in no event shall taxes be abated for a term in excess of ten (10) years).

For a new company, a project can qualify by adding at least $250,000 in real-property improvements, $500,000 in new personal property, or 12 new permanent jobs; an existing facility operating in the city for at least five years has lower thresholds of $150,000, $300,000, or seven jobs (qualification thresholds.

A data center may qualify even if it is not otherwise within a target industry if it has the potential to generate significant economic-development opportunities or clearly add to the city's economic base (additional, significant economic development opportunities).

A project may receive tax-abatement consideration for goods or services that distribute at least 50% outside Goliad County (fifty percent or more are distributed outside of the county).

The city can designate a project's property as a reinvestment zone if it is not already in one, after a public hearing and required findings; the zone designation lasts five years and may be renewed for successive periods of up to five years (may adopt an ordinance designating the subject property as a reinvestment zone).

The abatement agreement preserves the tax benefit for qualifying improvements whose value exceeds the property's execution-year value, while the base-year value and ineligible property remain fully taxable (exemption of improvements in each year).

The city council may vary the stated investment and job thresholds by a three-fourths vote if the applicant demonstrates that the variation is in the city's best interest and will enhance economic development (may vary the above requirements.