EP City Leaders ‘Tax Incentives To Bring Higher Paying Jobs In Future’

If there is one thing we talk about a lot on Mike and Tricia Mornings it's tax incentives being given to out of town businesses. It seems like every business looking to open or relocate to the city is given a sweetheart deal with tax abatements of 20 years no matter what kind of jobs they are bringing to El Paso. That could be coming to an end.

El Paso officials say they are working on changing the way they offer tax incentives, including making sure that the jobs that are being brought to the area are higher paying jobs and not just minimum wage jobs.

The City has a thing called the 380 Incentive Program and it is used to offer grants and tax rebates to boost business development in El Paso. It has worked because for the past five years more than 5,200 jobs have been brought to El Paso but not all those jobs were high paying and that is what city officials want to change.

Under the current plan, jobs brought to the El Paso have to pay at lease the County’s median wage of 14 dollars an hour. The new plan would require every new job in a company moving to the area to pay more than a specific job already pays in El Paso. El Paso City Manager Tommy Gonzalez told a local news station that when wages in one area go up, it drives wages in other areas up as well.

City officials say companies like Amazon moving into El Paso with their higher paying jobs will help drive the pay in other El Paso businesses higher as well. We can only hope that is the case because El Paso needs to stop selling itself as a low-wage haven for incoming businesses. We need to get our residents the kinds of sweetheart deals that businesses have been getting from so many City Councils.