Council adds tax‑rebate option to economic incentives policy to increase flexibility for business recruitment

The Socorro City Council on March 20 approved a revision to the Chapter 380 Economic Development Incentives Policy to add tax rebates as an incentive option in addition to tax abatement.

Jose Quinones, special projects and economic recovery, told the council the existing policy on record limited incentives to tax abatement. The revision adds a definition for tax rebates and adds tax‑rebate language to the category tables, allowing council to withhold payment until a business has met contract compliance over a period of years. "Tax rebates is almost the same thing, but what tax rebates do is it allows council to incentivize towards the end of a certain period," Quinones said, explaining that rebates are paid after staff verifies compliance.

Quinones said neighboring jurisdictions, including Horizon City and the city of El Paso, offer tax rebates and the change keeps Socorro competitive. The ordinance language adds tax‑rebate options under the category tiers and gives council discretion to select abatement, rebate or both when negotiating incentives.

Council voted to approve the revision. Staff said the policy language change is modest but provides additional flexibility for recruitment and for structuring incentive contracts with performance monitoring.