School district OKS deal with Samsung

School district to let firm save $83.6 million over 13 years on chip factory expansion.

Manor Independent School District approved a tax limitation agreement with Samsung Electronics Co. that will enable the chip-maker to save $83.6 million in school property taxes on big expansion to its Austin chip factory.

Manor Independent School District has approved a tax limitation agreement with Samsung Austin Semiconductor that will enable the chipmaker to save $83.6 mil- lion in school property taxes over 13 years on its expansion to its Austin chip factory.

Samsung applied for the property tax limitation to cover its proposed $4 billion upgrade to its massive factory in Northeast Austin, which lies within the Manor district.

The new agreement is separate from a 2005 incentives agreement that the school district signed with the chipmaker shortly before it began to build its major factory in Austin. The city of Austin and Travis County signed 20-year agreements with Samsung at that time and those remain in place.

The agreement under Chapter 313 of the state tax code caps the value of Sam- sung’s latest plant investment at $80 million a year for the school district’s maintenance and operations tax levy. That cap goes into effect in 2015 and extends through 2022.

The agreement, however, does not affect the district’s tax levy for servicing its debt.

Samsung estimates it has made about $11 billion in plant investments in Austin since 1996, with most of that coming