City OKs ‘living wage’ level for tax incentives
San Marcos says jobs count toward breaks if they pay $15 or better.
Companies applying for city tax incentives to bring jobs to fast-growing San Marcos will now have to pay a wage of at least $15 per hour for every position they want to get credit for.
The San Marcos City Council last week unanimously approved the “living wage” requirement, which supporters said is meant to ensure the city isn’t helping companies pay people less than is needed to live in the community.
“There are an inordinate number of families who require assistance to survive,” said Council Member Scott Gregson, one of the law’s three sponsors. “We have scarce resources in our city.”
Economic development strategies are a heated topic in San Marcos, which has an above-average poverty rate despite huge population growth and a bustling local economy. The U.S. Census Bureau has named it America’s fastest-growing city for the past three years.
Gregson in November unseated an incumbent council member who was seen as more friendly to the business community. His victory created a majority of council members who ran on promises to be more skeptical of the influence of development interests. Council Members John Thomaides and Lisa Prewitt, the wage law’s other sponsors, are also in that camp.
Under the new rule, the amount of taxpayer aid that a company gets from the city will be based on the number of its jobs that pay at least $15 per hour plus benefits, not the total number of jobs it creates. That means companies can still pay some people less than $15 per hour, but those low-paying positions won’t count toward the tally when calculating the company’s tax benefits.
Additionally, companies can still apply for incentives that aren’t based on their number of employees, such as property tax rebates for building a factory or distribution center.
The cities of Austin and San Antonio as well as Travis County all have minimum wage levels for companies receiving tax incentives, ranging from $11 to $13. San Marcos is the first smaller city in the area to adopt such a rule, Gregson said.
Thomaides said he hopes other towns in the area will join San Marcos in taking such action.
“I’m hoping other communities in the region follow suit,” Thomaides said. “It sure would be nice if we had an AustinSan Antonio corridor that valued our people as much as we value our profits or incentives.”
Additional material by American-Statesman staff writer Sean C. Walsh. The University Star is the independent newspaper produced by journalism students at Texas State University.