For the third time since 2013, the City of Port Arthur is working to annex properties currently outside Port Arthur city limits but in the ETJ (Extra Territorial Jurisdiction). These areas under annexation discussions are home to the industry that makes it possible for Port Arthur to continue being a potential location for industrial growth and that ultimately keeps Port Arthur alive.

If an IDA (Industrial District Agreement) with industry is not in place by the end of the year, the city can lose upwards of $30 million yearly in revenue, which is almost half of its annual revenue. Basically an IDA is an agreement between the city and industry on agreed upon tax rates paid to the city based on market value of the location.

Not having a long term IDA in place would ensure annexation talks would continue to be a regular part of business for the City of Port Arthur year after year. Not having one at all would allow the city to annex industry property, which in turn would increase tax rates to industry also increasing city revenues.

However, by annexing multiple locations outside the city limits, the city of Port Arthur would be responsible for supplying infrastructure and emergency services to all industry locations.

Before December 31, the city must also have in place a plan to cover the following services: emergency and medical services, police and fire protection, water and wastewater facilities, solid waste collection, road and street maintenance, etc. This would surely increase city expenses to be able to handle the workload. In short, you’re basically adding another city to the city.

We are concerned that the city does not — and will not — have the resources to cover all these services if IDAs are not in place by the end of the year. The police force is short handed as it is, road and street maintenance is not handled in the current city limits and there are continual reported issues with trash trucks delaying trash pickups, just to name a few.

We understand that industry revenue is important to the continued growth of our city; but, for the sake of all citizens throughout Port Arthur, we hope that the city doesn’t oversell and under supply when this is all said and done.

We also hope that any agreement reached would be in place longer than a year.