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City, State Considering Incentives Agreement With ID Company

hidglobal.com

City officials are mulling another economic incentives agreement with a company eyeing Austin for expansion – this time, California-based HID Global.

The self-described provider of “secure identity” products produces items like key-card readers, RFID tags, ID cards and more. In city documents, HID Global writes that it wants to build a manufacturing and distribution center in Austin. 

The company is offering to create at least 276 full-time jobs over 10 years – 47 before the end of 2014, and 276 by the end of 2015. Positions range from semiconductor and electronic component assembly, printing and film developing, to warehouse and shipping jobs. The average proposed wage is approximately $51,000 a year, but the expected average wage of the lowest paid 10 percent of workers is estimated at $21,000. You can read the proposed economic development agreement.

In exchange for creating the jobs, investing at least $30 million in a new facility and meeting other requirements, the city will rebate 60 percent of HID’s real estate and personal property taxes. The city estimates the incentives as costing $920,576.

That's in addition to $1.9 million Texas Governor Rick Perry has offered HID from the Texas Enterprise Fund. It's the third time in 2012 the fund has been used in Austin.

A presentation on the HID proposal will be made at a special-called meeting of the Austin City Council on Sept. 12 at Austin City Hall, with potential action scheduled for Sept. 27. 

Below, a map of the proposed expansion site in northeast Austin.

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Wells has been a part of KUT News since 2012, when he was hired as the station's first online reporter. He's currently the social media host and producer for Texas Standard, KUT's flagship news program. In between those gigs, he served as online editor for KUT, covering news in Austin, Central Texas and beyond.
Ben Philpott is the Managing Editor for KUT. Got a tip? Email him at bphilpott@kut.org. Follow him on Twitter @BenPhilpottKUT.
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