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Travis County, Texas, voted to grant Tesla minimum tax breaks of $14.7 million to build a new automotive plant, and employ thousands of them, near Austin Airport.
In which Tesla has proposed building its upcoming “Gigafactory” is known as Austin Green Development. Tesla still has to buy the land there, which would charge it about $5 million, plus another $1.1 billion, at least, to build the plant, which will make the Cybertruck. Assets line the Colorado River.
County officials discussed the proposal in a closed consultation Tuesday, before listening to speakers at a public hearing that was broadcast live on YouTube.
Prior to that, a local district, Del Valle ISD, had voted to approve Tesla’s plan, called Colorado River Project LLC, last week.
Tesla citizens, enthusiasts and critics spoke at various hearings before the Travis County District and the Travis County Commission in June and July.
Among those explicitly expressing their wishes were members of Tesla Owners Clubs founded in Texas, Tesla Employees from California and Texas, and business owners seeking their recruitment agencies, structure corporations, and auto sources for Tesla sellers or service providers.
Those who supported the incentives at Tesla basically expressed their preference for creating jobs and a source of income in the region for themselves or their children.
In February 2020, the Texas Workforce Commission reported 19342 unemployed in Travis County, representing an unemployment rate of 2.6%. This number increased in May 2020, following Covid-19 epidemic and fitness ordinances in the state, to 81466 unemployed, a rate of 11.6%.
Tesla now employs about 10,000 more people at its only U.S. auto plant in Fremont, California.
Others, adding environmentalists and labor advocates and local residents, have expressed considerations about the lack of promises of employee protection and the minimum wage for people, adding teenage students, who would possibly have entry-level jobs or low- and middle-rated jobs at the factory. .
Tesla has pledged, on paper, to provide a minimum wage of $15 per hour for food service workers and guards. But he did promise to create a giant volume of higher-paying jobs in the region.
Critics say the salary Tesla is willing to offer to low-skilled staff is not enough given the high rents, high space costs, and low source of housing in the domain (especially for first-time homebuyers).
Critics also spoke of Tesla’s track record of fighting syndication efforts at its other plants and its inability to recognize and address protection issues.
Many of those involved in Tesla’s protective practices have cited the tactics in which CEO Elon Musk minimized the dangers and severity of Covid-19, and the fact that he challenged local fitness orders in California to return to the Fremont-based auto plant. Middle. COVID-19 pandemic.
Tesla also has a turbulent history of assembly bonds in cities where it has received primary incentives to build factories.
For example, in November 2019, New York State officials noticed $959 million they spent to build and help equip a Tesla solar panel plant in Buffalo. The plant, announced in 2013, intended to employ more than 1,000 of them and manufacture photovoltaic energy, but never met its targets for solar production or employment. This year, Tesla requested an April deadline extension to meet those work obligations, prompting covid-19-like headaches.
More recently, Tesla controlled the construction of a shanghai car factory in less than a year, with $1.6 billion in loans and aid from the Chinese government.
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