The Construction Source America

City of Victoria, Tx | 9 is shipped outside the state within 175 days. All companies who had goods coming and going in such fashion were previously being taxed on it. Fowler says it took over a year (which he considers record time) to secure the Free Port Exemption, but that not only benefits Caterpillar, but all companies across the board, in fact, for one local company already established in Victoria, the savings amount to more than $500,000 a year. Fowl- er says it was all in the timing. “We have to have this big tax base coming into our com- munity which helped offset any risk from no longer collecting the taxes we were.” The Port of Victoria operations are, as Fowler says, another example of visionary leadership and proactive planning for the fu- ture. Conceived more than a 60 years ago, Fowler says, “For those guys who thought about dredging a 35 mile-long canal to cre- ate a waterway that leads to our communi- ty... that took a lot of guts and vision to do that, but today we’re really reaping benefits because they did.” As for the implementing of new incen- tives allowing for quicker permitting and tax breaks, Fowler says the development of such infrastructure helps demonstrate the cooperation fostered between government and business. “So much of economic devel- opment is about relationships, and when a company arrives, there’s no time to develop relationships at that point, they have to be already in place.” Caterpillar completed