|
Only have a minute? Listen instead
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Ramiro Aleman is no stranger to economic development in Cameron County, but now he’s in a position to have a wider impact countywide.
Aleman is the first director of the county’s new freestanding Economic Development Department, established by the county commissioners court late last year. Economic development and community affairs used to be combined in the same department, but the commissioners decided creating a separate department was warranted due to the growing level economic activity in the county, he said.
One sign of that growing activity is the rising number of tax-abatement applications from companies eyeing the county as a place to set up shop, said Aleman, who started the new job Nov. 27. He’s in the process of making sure the county’s several tax abatements are in order, see to it that the companies receiving are sticking to the terms of the agreements, and doing site visits.
The state allows governmental entities to offer tax abatements as a way of attracting businesses, and it’s a common practice. To be eligible, a company has to be willing to make a capital investment of at least $50 million to $100 million, Aleman said.
“Then of course you’ve got your SpaceX and your larger investments,” he said. “SpaceX, LNGs — those are the bigger ones.”
SpaceX said last May that it expected to have invested $5 million in developing its Starship production and testing complex at Boca Chica by the end of 2023, while the first phase of the Rio Grande LNG (liquefied natural gas) construction project underway at the Port of Brownsville has an estimated price tag of more than $18 billion.
“With these large investments, any funds that they can save down the line, they can reinvest in their company,” Aleman said. “Because they’re tax abatements that we’re providing. They have to make their capital investment before they can get any abatement on it. … We’re not throwing any money at anybody. They have to make the investment before.”
Eligible companies also have to meet certain requirements on job creation and retention, and wages. The county only extends abatements on the portion of its tax devoted to maintenance and operations, excluding the portions devoted to roads and bridges and to “interest and sinking,” which allows the county to service debt, Aleman said.
All the county’s current tax abatements can be found on the Economic Development Department’s webpage on the county’s website. The county announces all proposed tax abatements at least 30 days before commissioners take action in order to solicit public feedback. It’s also Aleman’s job to evaluate applications for proposed projects and decide whether it’s in the county’s economic interest to extend a tax abatement.
In general, he wants to be the “support system” for economic development entities in communities around the county, putting his extensive economic development expertise at their disposal.
Aleman worked for 11 years as industrial development director for the Harlingen Economic Development Corporation, five years as director of business recruitment and expansion for the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, and a little over a year as executive director and CEO of the San Benito Economic Development Corporation when the county position became available, an opportunity he said he “couldn’t pass up.”
“For those smaller communities that don’t have a dedicated, full time economic development director, I want to be there to support them and help them become more prosperous, and get more companies to choose those smaller communities,” Aleman said.
“Right now I’m scheduling appointments with all these folks and just trying to get the word out. I want to be their economic development director, if you will. That’s really my goal, is to help as many people in Cameron County as I can.”
