Brazos County Commission considers changes to its economic development tax abatement policy

This podcast contains comments from the January 27, 2026 Brazos County commission workshop meeting.Brazos County commissioners held a workshop Tuesday (January 27) where the county's economic development coordinator recommended changes to the county's tax abatement policy.Commissioners are scheduled to take final action February 24th on the recommendations involving property tax breaks to new and expanding businesses.Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the January 27, 2026 Brazos County commission meeting.Recommendations from Kimberly Gonzalez were based on comparing Brazos County with guidelines in Montgomery, McLennan, Smith, Jefferson, and Webb counties.Those recommendations include:Tighten up the definition of “eligible improvements”.Include a clause in the guidelines that one year from the receipt of application, the application expires. A new application must be completed at that time and a new $1,000 application fee be submitted to Brazos County.Note in the guidelines that projects that transfer employment from one part of the County to another will be considered on a case-by-case basis. (i.e.: Project must not be expected to solely or primarily have the effect of merely transferring employment from one area of Brazos County to another).Include a stipulation in the guidelines stating that the economic life of the facility or improvements must exceed the life of the abatement agreement.After the workshop, during the public comment period of Tuesday's commission business meeting, commissioners were asked to also include banning data centers from receiving tax abatements.