{"id":991,"date":"2011-11-01T13:02:37","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T18:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=991"},"modified":"2011-11-02T16:30:41","modified_gmt":"2011-11-02T21:30:41","slug":"with-profits-like-these-does-valero-need-a-tax-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/11\/01\/with-profits-like-these-does-valero-need-a-tax-break\/","title":{"rendered":"With Profits Like These, Does Valero Need a Tax Break?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_992\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 240px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-992\" title=\"Bill Klesse, Chairman and CEO of Valero\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/57080295-300x375.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/57080295-300x375.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/57080295-220x275.jpg 220w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/57080295.jpg 474w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Mark Wilson\/Getty Images<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"> Valero Chairman and CEO Bill Klesse<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Yesterday we reported on Valero Energy Corporation&#8217;s attempts to <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/10\/31\/the-arguments-the-valero-tax-break\/\">get a tax exemption<\/a>\u00a0from the state of Texas for upgrades it made to its\u00a0refineries. The money comes in the form of a property tax exemption from local appraisal districts, which could mean money lost from already-short school and city budgets. Looking at the arguments for and against, we examined Valero&#8217;s financial earnings and concluded that one of the arguments against is that they might not need the money in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Valero <a href=\"http:\/\/phx.corporate-ir.net\/phoenix.zhtml?c=100647&amp;p=irol-newsArticle_Print&amp;ID=1624038&amp;highlight=&amp;erp=earningsDisclosure_Print\">announced earnings<\/a> for the third quarter of 2011, and they are having a banner year thus far. Their net income was reported at $1.2 billion, as opposed to $303 million for the same quarter last year. For this year so far, they have a net income of $2.1 billion. These were Valero&#8217;s best quarterly results in over four years, according to the company&#8217;s CEO and Chairman, <a href=\"http:\/\/people.forbes.com\/profile\/william-r-klesse\/83609\">Bill Klesse<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>What is responsible for the company&#8217;s good fortune?<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Higher gas prices, for one, in this case increased costs for the diesel and jet fuel the company refines and sells. The company also added\u00a0refineries\u00a0to its portfolio in Britain and Aruba.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/10\/31\/the-arguments-the-valero-tax-break\/\">The Arguments: The Valero Tax\u00a0Break<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/08\/TCEQ1-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/tceq\/\">What Is The Texas Commission of Environmental Quality?<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/07\/Oil-FirstDrillinAustin-Trinity-street-By-Daniel-Reese-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/oil-production-in-texas\/\">Oil Production In\u00a0Texas<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>But with such positive financials and the potential for negative PR, why is Valero going after millions of dollars in tax breaks from local communities?\u00a0&#8220;We&#8217;ve always paid our taxes, we have a problem overpaying our taxes,&#8221; says Bill Day, Valero&#8217;s spokesman. &#8220;Is overpaying our taxes in the interests of the community? Should the teachers in Houston overdonate their time?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Day maintains that &#8220;the huge numbers people are talking about are false &#8212; they don&#8217;t take into account that Valero isn&#8217;t seeking a refund for past years, or that state is considering a partial exemption.&#8221; If the tax break were approved tomorrow, Day says, it would only be for the following tax year and tax years going forward.\u00a0And the company claims that the assessed value of the equipment is going to be much lower than what they paid to purchase and install them. &#8220;It&#8217;s much, much lower,&#8221; Day says.<\/p>\n<p>How much lower? We won&#8217;t know until the\u00a0assessments\u00a0are made, which would only happen after the TCEQ approves the tax breaks. So while opponents are coming up with numbers as high as $135 million, Valero expects to see a much lower number, though it won&#8217;t say by how much.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow, StateImpact Texas will be reporting on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/event.php?eid=177841678968859\">hearing<\/a>\u00a0at the Texas Commission on Environmental Equality (TCEQ) that will hear from parents, teachers, officials and environmentalists opposing the tax break. Will Valero be there? &#8220;We don&#8217;t expect a decision this tomorrow,&#8221; Day says, &#8220;so we don&#8217;t have anyone on the speaking agenda.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But with all of the opposition, and a potentially minor financial benefit of the refunds themselves, is it worth Valero going to all the trouble? Day seems to think so. &#8220;We can handle the public relations aspect of this,&#8221; he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday we reported on Valero Energy Corporation&#8217;s attempts to get a tax exemption\u00a0from the state of Texas for upgrades it made to its\u00a0refineries. The money comes in the form of a property tax exemption from local appraisal districts, which could mean money lost from already-short school and city budgets. Looking at the arguments for and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[21,28,27,33],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=991"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":999,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991\/revisions\/999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}