Map of Texas
PECOS ENTERPRISE

HOME PAGE

NEWS PAGES
News
Sports
Opinion
Lifestyles
Eagles Football
Sports Scores
Texas Lotto

SPECIAL SECTIONS
Living off the Land
Football '97
Golden Years
Visitor's Guide

ADVERTISING
Display Advertising
Bookstore
Classified

TRAVEL
Tourism
Pecos Attractions
Caprock Country

ARCHIVES
Archives 87
Archives 95
Archives 96
Archives 97

AREA NEWSPAPERS
Monahans News
Fort Stockton Pioneer
Alpine Avalanche
Van Horn Advocate

STAFF
Mac McKinnon
Jon Fulbright
Peggy McCracken
Rick Smith
Rosie Flores
Cara Alligood
Greg Harman

FORUM
E-Mail Forum

LINKS
Links to News Photos
Links to Other Sites


|

Daily Newspaper and Tourism Guide for Reeves County Trans Pecos, Big Bend of West Texas

OPINION

Mac McKinnon

Opinion

Friday, November 7, 1997

Observations


By Mac McKinnon

Sales tax issue has surprising results

The election this past week in Midland and Odessa has stirred up a lot
of interest.

As you may know, the sales tax issue in Midland was voted down. That
measure would have increased the sales tax in Midland and reduced
property taxes with some of the increased sales tax to go toward
recruiting new industry and business for Midland.

In Odessa, the issue was to take sales tax away from the hospital and
give it to a fund to help attract industry. Both cities wanted to
compete with other cities that are offering lump sums of money to
industries to relocate to their town.

Amarillo has been doing this for a number of years and has been
successful, at least to this point. Because of the size of Amarillo, the
sales tax fund is very large so they can afford to offer the big bucks
to attract new industry.
Most cities in addition to offering money to help industry relocate, can
also offer some form of local tax abatement - reducing or eliminating
taxes for a period of years.

Pecos and Reeves County is working on an abatement program - or as some
people want to say - an investment program.

There are many arguments pro and con on this issue. I wasn't sure of my
feelings on this issue for a number of years until I was working on
getting an industry located in Colorado City back in the 70s and then we
got beat out by Alabama because they could sell low interest revenue
bonds, a forerunner of cash incentives and tax abatement. Texas didn't
allow those kinds of bonds at the time.

It's a competitive world out there and I'm not sure if I like trying to
buy "loyalty." What's to keep business and industry in your town for a
long period of time if they accept your offer that is only good for a
period of years?
It's all a gamble and you hope they will like doing business in your
town and stay there for the long haul and that's where you get a return
on your "investment."

I prefer to have homegrown industries where the people involved have
roots. But that is not always possible so you have to go out and try to
attract new people. There are times that people from the outside
appreciate what you have more than people who have lived in a town
forever. Such is the case with Pecos and most places.

I'm not sure why the issue was defeated in Midland as I thought it had a
better chance of passage than did the issue in Odessa. It's just
difficult to predict how people will vote on certain issues.

There has been discussion in recent years of just having a sales tax and
doing away with property taxes in the state. On the national level,
there have been proposals to have a national sales tax instead of an
income tax. Those issues probably won't fly with voters, at least not
any time soon.

It's all part of our changing world.

Editor's Note: Mac McKinnon is the Editor and Publisher of the Pecos
Enterprise whose column appears each Friday. He can be e-mailed at:
bigmac@bitstreet.com

Critic's Corner

Search engine helps post a page on the Internet

Posting a page on the Internet is just the beginning for a business or
individual. The next step is to get it noticed.

Search engines that index pages by name and keywords are the primary
means users employ to find topics of their choice. It takes hours just
to register a page with the top search engines, but that's only the
beginning. Running keyword searches to determine your position on the
index is a must to keep the site in the top 30 where most users browse.

That's where WebPosition shines. It can scan 10 search engine indexes in
a few minutes and report on the position your site occupies. If you're
not listed in the top 30 for a particular keyword, you may need to
change your META information strategy and re-submit the page.

WebPosition is a tool to give businesses a means to compete on the
search engines, helping them to gain the best listings, says its
creator, Brent Winters. And he offers personal support through his
website, by e-mail and by telephone.

To learn more about WebPosition, Click Here.

Download a free demo from Download and try it for yourself.

PEGGY McCRACKEN



Search Entire Site:


Pecos Enterprise
Mac McKinnon, Publisher
Peggy McCracken, Webmaster
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.

324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net

Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.

Copyright 1997 by Pecos Enterprise
We support Newspapers in Education