BEAUMONT — There is some good news this week following all of the misery from Tropical Storm Harvey.

The Jefferson County Commissioners Court approved establishing a reinvestment zone with Dow Chemical at their regular meeting on Monday afternoon at the courthouse in Beaumont. The Dow plant is on Highway 347 between Beaumont and Nederland and they will expand their facility and increase jobs.

Dow is looking at the possibility of modernizing its Beaumont works site, which would include a new control room and office building and new operating equipment associated with the production process, according to Jarrod Erpelding, corporate media relations leader.

“The $109 million project would retain approximately 60 jobs. Community support is a key factor in our decisions. Our preliminary discussions with Jefferson County have been encouraging and we look to continue those in the coming weeks,” Erpelding wrote.

Furthermore, an amended tax abatement agreement between Jefferson County and Golden Pass Products LLC Train 1,2 and 3, or project stages, was passed.

Both parties originally entered into a tax abatement agreement on June 22, 2015 with respect to the abatement of certain ad valorem property taxes on a new pant facility to be constructed in Sabine Pass.

Circumstances beyond the owner’s control due to waiting on permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Tropical Storm Harvey delayed construction and Golden Pass would suffer loss of the intended benefits of the original abatement agreement.

The new agreement for Train 1 reads: The term of the abatement schedule, shall be 100 percent per year beginning Jan. 1, 2020 and terminate on Dec. 31, 2029, unless sooner terminated pursuant to other provisions of this agreement. Should the owner not begin the construction of the project by Dec. 31, 2019, this agreement shall be null and void.

Likewise, the agreement for Train 2 shall begin on Jan. 1, 2021 and terminate on Dec. 31, 2030. The agreement will be null and void if construction does not begin by Dec. 31, 2020.

The agreement for Train 3 shall begin on shall begin on Jan. 1, 2022 and terminate on Dec. 31, 2031. The agreement will be null and void if construction does not begin by Dec. 31, 2021.

Lastly, Allison Nathan Getz, tax-assessor collector for Jefferson County, said there are numerous hotels and motels delinquent in paying their Hotel Occupancy Taxes.

Consequently, the Jefferson County Commissioners Court gave her the authority under the State of Texas to examine their books if they are delinquent after 30 days.

“The bottom line is there are tons of motels and hotels here and the vast majority of pay. There are a few habitual ones who do not.”

She said the Hotel Occupancy Tax is not like the property tax.

HOT is a tax charged to people occupying their hotels. The hotel counts them and reports how may are staying to the tax-assessor office.

HOT is administered through the Ben J. Rogers Regional Visiting Center. They distribute the funds to applicants for grants. A large portion of the funds also goes to Ford Park, so some of it is administered by Jefferson County.

“We need to do something about it. There needs to be a consequence. It’s not fair for those who are paying it,” Nathan Getz said.

The tax-assessor office is responsible for auditing, collecting and maintaining records regarding hotel taxes. Each hotel and motel is required to timely file reports with the office to verify hotel taxes which are due and owing by them. The tax-assessor has reported there are numerous hotels and motels who have not filed the mandated reports and who are delinquent in pay hotel taxes.

The hotel taxes are part of the Jefferson County General Funds and the county is required to utilize reasonable and necessary measures allowed by law to collect such taxes for the benefit of the citizens of Jefferson County.

The tax-assessor collector office is empowered to authorize the addition of a collection penalty in an amount that does not exceed the amount of compensation specified in the contract with the private law firm. The amount of 20 percent of the delinquent tax, penalty and interest if the tax becomes delinquent on or after Feb. 1 of a year and remains delinquent on the 60^th day thereafter.