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Proper Reinvestment Zone Naming Standards
The Comptroller requires all taxing units to properly name a reinvestment zone or enterprise zone in the correct format. This format applies to all taxing jurisdictions that create a new reinvestment zone.
As a government agency, when the Comptroller is explicitly tasked with performing a task under the statute, by law, we have the powers necessary to carry out those duties. Here, the Comptroller is charged with administering Chapter 312 and also preparing reports to the legislature and governor, which necessarily involves identifying the various reinvestment zones.
The reinvestment zone naming conventions provided on the CPA website and in our PowerPoint and Webinar presentation online were created to allow us to administer Chapter 312 pursuant to Section 312.005.
First, local taxing units need to identify what locality or subdivision the zone is in, because often an enterprise zone encompasses nearly a whole community. Sometimes there are multiple cities in a county with an enterprise zone. If the zone is anticipated to have only one single business in it which is anticipated in receiving in abatement and no other businesses, then the name of the zone could include the name of the business as seen in the list of examples below.
The second way to differentiate between the two – is to indicate if the zone is a Reinvestment Zone (RZ) or an Enterprise Zone (EZ). Chapter 312, identifies Enterprise Zones as a different type of reinvestment zone, but a reinvestment zone nonetheless.
Third, if the zone is a reinvestment zone, then the next element to include in the name is the “zone number” if there are two or more zones in a given community/taxing unit, which is to be in numerical order such as Reinvestment Zone 1 and Reinvestment Zone 2. Ordinance numbers or dates ARE NOT to be included in the name of the zone.
Fourth, if the zone is in an enterprise, then a tract number and block number is necessary to identify where the business that received the abatement is located in within the enterprise zone. The cities or counties with an enterprise zone should have the tract and block numbers. If you don’t have the tract and block number, then these can be found on the Governor’s website seen above. Tract and block numbers are based on federal census numbers for certain areas and are typically good for a 10 year period until the census is done again every decennial period (every 10 years), thereby changing the tract and block numbers and boundaries.
Here are some examples of how to properly name a reinvestment zone –
- City of Dallas Reinvestment Zone #1
- Reunion District Reinvestment Zone #1 and Reunion District Reinvestment Zone #2
- Verizon Reinvestment Zone
- Cooke County Enterprise Zone Tract #222 Block 1.