The Pampa Independent School District Board of Trustees approved a series of items related to the 313 Texas Tax Code for two businesses in Pampa.
“A 313 agreement basically provides an avenue for a company to come in and we recruit them to come into the District,” PISD Superintendent Hugh Piatt said in a phone interview after the meeting. “The recruiting piece, a lot of people refer it to be like a tax abatement, but it’s not a tax abatement.”
Through this agreement, school districts can limit the taxes a project or company pays for a 10-year period through their maintenance/operations piece of the tax formula.
“Pampa ISD, because of our tax base, can offer a limit of $30 million,” Piatt said. “If a company is worth $100 million, they only have to pay $30 million for that 10-year period. If the project is a 25-year or 30-year project, after the first 10 years, they pay the regular rate.”
The Board approved for consideration two 313 agreements with Proman USA, Inc. and Intersect Power.
“It has to pass a 25-year test,” Piatt said. “Once the Board approves this for consideration, it’ll get sent to the Comptroller. Then the Comptroller looks over them to see that it will be beneficial for the School District.”
The deal should be beneficial for the School District as the State will still fund the District more.
“If we have this new company coming to town valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, the State knows that company is giving us more money, the State will give us less,” Piatt said. “For those 10 years, whatever the state would have withheld from us, the company is now providing for us.”
Piatt added the Interest/Sinking side will be paid at the full rate by the company.
There were two items pulled from the consent agenda for the sake of transparency.
The first was a budget amendment related to AT&T, which in turn was used to fund a contract with Region 16 and former Chief Financial Officer Todd Hubbart as a consultant/coach to current CFO Heath Parker and new accountant Angel Grant.
“It’s a three-year contract so we will be working with Todd,” Piatt said. “Todd went to Region 16 to be a coach for CFOs in the region. We use him because he used to be here in Pampa and did his job very well.”
In the enrollment report, Pampa is up 64 students from this time last year at 3,443. But Piatt noted that ADA is down, which is the key figure in funding.
Consent agenda
• Approve board minutes: March 28, 2022
• Approve Monthly Financial Reports
• Approve the quarterly investment report
• Approve purchase of bulk copy paper School Finance and School Business Operations
• Approve TASB Risk Management Fund Interlocal Participation Agreement
• Approve adoption and purchase of PE Instructional Materials
• Approve the sale of delinquent tax property
Discussion/Action items
• Approve a Standard Form of Agreement between Owner and Architect with Shiver Megert & Associates, LLP, AIA Form B101-2019 as amended by the District to provide professional services related to the District’s 2022 Potential Capital Improvement Program.
• Select a contractor relating to the High School Concrete Repair and Replacement Project, CSP #2022-01, and authorizing the Superintendent or his designee, to take action as needed on the District’s behalf. The concrete repair involves the Duncan Street entrance to the high school and make it ADA compliant, as well as outside of McNeely Fieldhouse to Valhalla and Cav to also make it ADA compliant.
