YOU PAY HIS TAXES

TCE’s focus includes shining a light on the excess and folly of huge state and local tax abatements given to some of our state’s worst corporate polluters.

Since 2022, we have partnered with community groups along the Texas Gulf Coast to conduct strategic campaigns to oppose, resist, delay and ultimately deny locally-granted tax subsidies for fossil fuel and petrochemical projects.

To help educate and mobilize the public, our work has included commissioning and publishing three major economic studies analyzing, for the first time, tax subsidies already granted to polluters in Brazoria County, Greater Corpus Christi (Nueces and San Patricio Counties), and Greater Houston (Harris County).

In Brazoria County, our study’s findings showed that more than $2.1 billion in tax revenue had been given away to polluters like Freeport LNG, and that corporations received an average of $1.93 million in tax breaks for each new job promised. Freeport LNG alone received over $1 billion – 52% of all tax breaks given – and nearly $6 million for each new job promised.

Similarly, the Greater Corpus Christi analysis showed total tax breaks of over $2.4 billion given to polluters, with key beneficiaries including Cheniere (Corpus Christi Liquefaction), which received the highest tax break at $1.2 billion. The average cost to taxpayers per job was $953,294, with one company, Equistar Chemicals, receiving a total subsidy of $34.5 million for only three jobs – an average cost per job of $11.5 million.

The Greater Houston report showed roughly $1 billion in tax breaks, with ExxonMobil – the world’s 7th most profitable company – receiving the largest subsidy, at $200 million. The average cost per job was $1.2 million.  Occidental Petroleum received a tax break of $77.4 million in exchange for creating just two jobs, resulting in a jaw-dropping cost to taxpayers of $38.7 million per job. 

Across all three studies, San Patricio County “stood out” as having given away 117% of its annual budget, while the Gregory-Portland Independent School District and the city of Freeport each gave away over $1 billion. The total tax benefit to polluters across three reports: $5.6 billion.

Bringing these massive corporate tax subsidies into the spotlight is helping TCE and our local partners – groups like Better Brazoria, the Coastal Alliance to Protect Our Environment, and the Coastal Watch Association – win allies and victories in the fight to persuade local officials to end them.