Travis County postpones development incentives policy vote

The policy

During its Nov. 13 meeting, the court adopted parts of a draft policy for economic development incentives. Leslie Browder, county Planning and Budget Office executive, made a presentation outlining key issues that had come up during the incentive deals with Apple Inc. and HID Global Inc. in recent months. The court voted on individual recommendations, including voting to offer only tax rebates in the policy.

The Planning and Budget Office is recommending the court consider revisiting bringing the pay of contract construction workers up to minimum wage if they work on facilities subject to tax incentives for an applicant company.

Davis said he supports that.

"I think that's the way we could move forward as far as sharing and making sure that people who need to feed their families have enough to feed their families," he said.

Eckhardt said she wants to know more about what the court should do when an entity does not comply.

"The questions I have moving forward are implementation questions, not whether to have it; I have no doubt that we should," she added. Discussion on the subject will resume at next week's meeting.

Construction community speaks up

Some community members in attendance said they support making $11 per hour the wage floor. Phillip Lawhon, a representative of an electricians union in Austin, said he is in favor of the policy.

"I believe with the prevailing wage floor implemented into this policy, it's going to be beneficial to the workers and allow those good practicing businesses to be competitive in the small amount of jobs that are coming in because of the incentive rebates," he said.

Others pointed out construction project contracts are often based on the lowest bid, and this policy could conflict with that.

Implementing the policy could have some unintended consequences including fierce competition between hardworking construction employees and more "unscrupulous" workers, said Phil Thoden, president of the Austin Chapter of Associated General Contractors of America.