Members of the Houston City Council have officially passed a new ordinance that requires businesses seeking property tax abatements to abide by new, higher standards when it comes to employee pay and benefits.
According to a recent report from ABC13, the city has only offered these abatements 21 times since 2004, so it’s unclear how much positive impact, if any, the new policy will have.
Economist Dr. Vance Ginn is, however, warning that there could be negative impacts when it comes to actual employee pay and opportunity growth. “That’s gonna raise their cost, and anytime you raise their cost, they’re likely to not hire as many workers, not invest in growing their business, and instead, this may create an incentive for businesses to invest in AI.”
Ginn went on to say that the best option is for government to get out of the way of business completely. According to him: “This is another bad way to go; it’s another big-government technique. Instead, they should be removing taxes and regulations to allow for more profitability, and that will result in higher wages.”