Texas leaders want a new way to attract businesses here. But they can’t agree on how to do it.

A pumpjack operates nearby a house under construction in a new housing development on March 14, 2022 north of Midland. (Credit: Eli Hartman for The Texas Tribune)

With Texas boasting more Fortune 500 company headquarters than any other state in the nation, the House and Senate appear motivated to pass an economic-incentive plan to continue attracting business and development to Texas school districts, and to replace a beleaguered 20-year program that expired last year.

The goal is to craft a tax-abatement bill to replace the old Texas Economic Development Act, known informally as Chapter 313, referring to the part of the state tax code that gave large businesses moving to Texas a 10-year discount on their school property taxes. The program was allowed to die in December after complaints it was little more than corporate welfare and that it created inequity in public school financing.