Texarkana College trustees met today for their regular meeting and approved an agreement with TCI Texarkana, Inc., for tax abatement on construction of a new state-of-the-art cold rolling mill to produce common alloy. Dr. Jason Smith, president of Texarkana College, said the tax abatement agreement will be solely on TCI’s new construction project and will not affect current tax revenue from the corporation.
“The proposed new mill has a contract amount of $100,000,000 and will bring 75 new jobs to Bowie County,” said Smith. “The property tax abatement will be for 10 years on a sliding scale starting at 90% and dropping to 10% by year ten. After the tenth year, TCI will be responsible for 100% of the taxes based on the property valuation at that time.”
Smith said the agreement terms and the property meet the applicable guidelines and criteria governing TC’s tax abatement agreements.
“We are glad to support the efforts made by ARTX REDI and TCI to bring new economic growth to our area. We are appreciative of all the work that has been done to ensure this project is viable and successful.”
In other business, Kim Jones, TC’s chief financial officer and vice president of finance, reported on the college’s audit for 2020-2021 fiscal year ending August 31, 2021. Jones said the independent audit, conducted by Thomas and Thomas Certified Public Accountants, resulted in a completely clean audit with zero findings.
“We are very grateful for the mindful management of resources from every entity within the College to assure we remain fiscally stable,” said Jones. “These last two years have been exceptionally difficult due to the COVID-19 pandemic and TC faculty and staff are working harder than ever to provide great service to students on very limited resources.”
TC Board President Kaye Ellison said the audit report shows campus-wide commitment to maintaining excellence in fiscal management and controls while maintaining a safe and secure learning environment for students.
“When it comes to pulling together, this team consistently achieves huge goals on a bare-bones budget,” said Ellison. “I could not be prouder of the work done by Kim Jones and her staff in maintaining excellent internal financial controls resulting in perfect compliance once again. Thanks also goes out to our foundation director, Katie Andrus, for her skillful management of our assets, and of course a big thank you to our amazing donors that are providing wonderful resources for so many in our service area.”
President Dr. Jason Smith reported that TC will hold the first in-person commencement ceremony since fall 2019 on Tuesday, December 14, 2021, celebrating the completion of 315 students.
“I am pleased to report we are finally able to host an in-person commencement ceremony to celebrate our summer and fall graduates,” said Smith. “The coming-together of students and their families, along with our faculty and staff, to acknowledge the success of our graduates is the highlight of every semester.”
TC’s commencement ceremony will be held at First Baptist Church Texarkana beginning at 7:00 PM. A live stream of the ceremony will be accessible from TC’s website homepage at www.texarkanacollege.edu.
