The future “looks very bleak” for the Emergency Services District No. 3, a district board meeting told the Orange City Council Wednesday. The board member, businessman Bobby Manshack, spoke during a public hearing as the city moves to annex the International Paper container board mill on North Highway 87. The mill is the largest taxpayer in the Emergency Services District that covers the unincorporated areas of Little Cypress.
Manshack and others with the district pleaded with the council not to annex the plant. Manshack said the ESD services 5,000 to 6,000 people and 98 percent of the calls involve the district’s trained EMTs going to provide medical assistance. “If y’all don’t want to share, it’s going to have consequences,” he told the council. He said the ambulance service can take 20 minutes to get to an emergency medical call in the district. Without International Paper, the district will have to rely on volunteers who are not at the station.
Orange City Manager Dr. Shawn Oubre has said the annexation is part of negotiations with International Paper. He said the company wants to keep expenses consistent.
ESD Board President Joe Parkhurst said the district pays part-time professional firefighters from other cities who are trained emergency medical technicians or paramedics. He said that when the district had only volunteers, the volunteers had other jobs and could not spend the time to get medical assistance training.
After the public hearing, Parkhurst said the department added the paid professionals after instituting a 1.5 percent sales tax. Voters in the district approved the sales tax in 2010. Since the district started collecting the sales tax, the annual income increased from about $350,000 a year to $500,000 a year, according to the Texas State Comptroller’s Office. In 2014 the district got $474, 164. Parkhurst said most of the sales tax money comes from mill. He has said the ESD originally expected about $60,000 a year of income from the sales tax.
At that time, the mill was owned by Temple-Inland. The mill, under different owners, has had an industrial district contract with the city for almost 50 years. The company makes in-lieu-of-taxes payments to the city an in return the city will provide fire and police protection. After the sales tax was implemented, Temple-Inland tried to get out of paying the ESD sales tax by relying only on the city for fire protection. City Attorney John Cash Smith said the request could not be legally accomplished.
The Orange County Appraisal District reports International Paper paid about $80,000 in property taxes to the ESD 3 this year. Orange City Finance Director Gail English said International Paper paid the city $314,630 for the industrial district contract in the current fiscal year.
Oubre said the city and International Paper are cooperating on an economic development agreement for the plant to make annual payments to the city with the annexation. State economic development law allows the cities to negotiate terms to encourage business.
Oubre said the agreement does not mean the company will pay the city sales taxes. He said the agreement will not require the city to install water and sewer lines to the plant.
City officials have said the annexation will help preserve local business and jobs. In 2002, Temple-Inland announced it was going to close the plant and its hundreds of workers. The plant is also the major taxpayer in the Little Cypress-Mauriceville CISD. Then-Governor Rick Perry and State Representative Ron Lewis helped work an agreement with the company to keep the mill open. Perry came to the paper mill to meet with employees. Since then, plant owners have invested to update equipment.
District 2 Councilmember Dr. Wayne Guidry represents the incorporated Little Cypress area. He said his parents live in the unincorporated area and are served by the ESD 3 and he understands the position of the ESD. “It’s not an easy decision,” he said. However, business flourishes in Texas because of the tax system, he said. “When the tax burden is eased on a business, business flourishes,” he said. He said the city also needs to help protect the LC-M school district, which relies on the property taxes from International Paper. “I don’t think the city is looking to gain a tax of money, but to secure International Paper,” he said.
The city will hold another public hearing on the annexation at 9 a.m. Monday. The official annexation votes should be on agendas for council meetings in July.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
Social Media