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Techniques For Mitigating Urban Sprawl
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Strategy: Urban Containment Strategies  - Property Taxation
Policy Action: Targeted Tax Abatement
Definition:

Targeted tax abatement is a program that encourages certain types of development in targeted areas through property tax reductions. By tying tax abatement provisions to local growth management goals, tax abatement can act as a financial inducement to those developers who wish to build developments that meet objectives established by the community. Property tax abatement can be used to encourage affordable housing, infill development, or job-creating commercial development in economically depressed areas. Source/Reference: Georgia DCA, 1998, pp. 27.


Texas Applications

Chapter 2303 of the Texas Government Code creates an enterprise zone program to identify severely distressed areas and provide incentives to induce private investment by removing unnecessary governmental regulatory barriers and providing tax incentives and economic development program benefits. Government Code ? 2303.002. The Texas Economic Development Bank is available to offer to technical assistance relating to tax abatement and the development of alternative revenue sources. Id. at ? 2303.053. Local communities must nominate a company as an Enterprise Project to be eligible to participate in the Enterprise Zone Program. The state accepts applications quarterly. Designated projects are eligible to apply for state sales and use tax refunds on qualified expenditures. The level and amount of refund is related to the capital investment and jobs created at the qualified business site. Office of the Government Economic Development and Tourism, Enterprise Zone Program website, http://www.governor.state.tx.us/divisions/ecodev/ed_bank/enterprise_zone


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