Everything Cameron County Deputy Administrator Dan Serna said about NextDecade at public hearing

Just to refresh everybody's memory. Rio Grande LNG leased a 984-acre site from the Port of Brownsville. The project will consist of five LNG trains. The estimated investment on the project is $18 billion with $12 billion of that being for phase one alone, with trains one to three. At the peak there will be over 5,000 construction jobs or five to seven years. At full build out the project will have 437 permanent jobs with an average salary of $100,000 per year and the annual payroll will be $43.7 million. Tax receipts are projected in Cameron County alone from expenditures in local businesses at $136.9 million. Cameron County granted NextDecade/Rio Grande LNG a tax abatement in 2017 for trains one and two, for trains three, four and five. Cameron County approached Rio Grande LNG about considering some amendments to the agreement to smooth out the revenue stream for the county which would benefit the county.And I'll pass this on to David King with NextDecade. But before I do, I'm going to show a slide. So, I wanted to show this, the list of taxpayers. That is the top taxpayers in Cameron County, and you can see there, the total assessed value on the top taxpayer, AEP Texas is $331 million. That's the current tax rate. The tax calculated revenue to the county would be about $1.4 million. The blue number there for NextDecade/Rio Grande LNG, that is during the abatement period. That is not at 100% taxable values. During the abatement period, for the five trains, they will become the highest paying taxpayer in Cameron County. So, during the abatement period, I want to point that out again. So, you can see that the first year is $9.6 million, and it goes on to $4 million and it stays consistent. That's how we smooth out the revenue and about $4.2 million in revenue. So, they become the highest paying taxpayer in Cameron County. This is with the abatements and only during the abatement period. This number jumps up substantially after the abatement period is over. Editor's Note: Go to the Rio Grande Guardian website to read the full story.Go to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.