When Beaumont At-Large Council member Albert “AJ” Turner put together Tuesday's vision workshop, one of the many topics he wanted to focus on was improving the city’s stagnant economy.
The meeting also focused on building trust with residents, the city’s image and beautification efforts, youth engagement, infrastructure, celebratory events, electronic payment systems for residents’ city bills, riverfront development, the Battleship Texas and putting defibrillators in municipal buildings.
One of his chief concerns was the way Beaumont is falling behind other area cities creating programs to foster financial prosperity.
The city currently offers neighborhood environment zone programs, such as fee waivers, expedited permitting, removal of city liens and a number of other benefits to developers. Still, Turner is concerned that cities smaller than Beaumont are starting to leave this bigger city behind.
“I just wanted to bring it to the council's attention that when it comes to looking at what we offer compared to what other cities offer, they're really starting to outdo us as far as economic development because we're only offering abatements,” Turner said. “They have events, mentors, et cetera — EDCs and other types of funding projects that actually offer more than abatements for particular businesses they wanted in the area.”
An Economic Development Corporation would raise money from a portion of city sales tax.
The city of Beaumont gets 1.5% of the 8.25% sales tax. State law allows EDCs to take a half of that 1% and dedicate it to economic development.
City manager Kyle Hayes estimates anywhere from $13 million to $15 million annually would be generated specifically for economic development in the city if an EDC was set up, and Turner added that the city could allocate a lower rate if they wanted and still bring in about $2 million dollars annually. But there are a couple of obstacles.
The first thing that Beaumont would need is for the citizens to vote favorably for the city to get an EDC. The last time the idea was put to residents was in the 80s, according to Hayes, and voters shot it down.
“In the 80s, every city around us approved it except Beaumont,” Turner said.
“That's a long time ago,” Ward II Council member Mike Getz said. “Sentiment may have changed. So maybe that is something we need to look at.”
Secondly, if the money was diverted to the EDC instead of put into the general fund, other funds would have to be uncovered to pay for city operations. Alternatively, the city could cut services, which Hayes thinks is unlikely to happen.
“You have to increase the property tax rate to bring in that same revenue because that's funding police, fire, EMS, parks, libraries,” Hayes said. “The voters said no, we don't want that in Beaumont. That’s the history. Could you go back to the voters? The council could have put that on the ballot at any time.”
If the measure passed, an oversight board might need to be created to manage EDC funds. The council is planning a workshop to invite residents to learn more about the types of EDCs — the first step to deciding if this is the route the city wants to go in to improve commercial opportunity and employment in Beaumont.
Either way, Turner wants to find a solution so Beaumont won’t have to see businesses like Bucee’s and Walk-On’s choose other cities to settle in.
“With us being the hub of Southeast Texas, I feel like we should have everything and the other small city should get them after us,” he said. “ I don't want anyone from Beaumont to ever feel like I gotta go there because we don't have it here.”
rachel.kersey@beaumontenterprise.com
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