According to Dave Porter, senior vice president for economic development at the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, Apple's plan for a $304 million operations center in the capital of Texas is "in peril." This is due to the Travis County Commissioners Court delaying its approval of the deal over the incentives offered to the tech company, reports the Austin-American Statesman.
"This deal is not done. It remains in peril. And Apple is frustrated," Porter said.
The county initially approved the incentives offer to Apple in principle on April 17. The total incentives package, including state and government funds, was estimated to be $35 million to $36 million over the next 10 to 15 years. Despite the initial approval, the details of the incentives plan was brought back up for discussion on Tuesday. A final vote on the decision was delayed until next week, after hours of discussion.
Apple's proposed Austin operations center would create 3,600 new jobs in the city over the next decade, many of which would be entry-level help-desk positions.
The county decided to take another look at the incentives offer after questions about the deal were raised by opponents at the Commissioners Court meeting on Tuesday.
Bill Aleshire, an attorney and former Travis County judge, called the incentives offer "a sorry contract," adding that Apple "had it rigged so they could not comply with the contract yet end up with county staff basically renegotiating the terms that they would have to comply with."
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