Travis County Gives Final Approval to Tax Incentives for Apple Expansion in Austin

The Travis County Commissioners Court has just given official approval for a package of tax incentives designed to secure Apple's commitment to expand its Austin, Texas campus and add over 3,600 new jobs at the site. The approval comes after development officials expressed concern last week that the deal was "in peril" as concerns over loopholes in the contract delayed approval by the county.

apple austin campus
Apple's campus in Austin, Texas (Source: Flickr/The Pug Father)

Prior to today's meeting of the Commissioners Court, the Austin American-Statesman reported on some of the tweaks to the contract, including language requiring Apple to pay the lowest-salaried 10% of its new employees at the site an average of $35,000 per year. Contractors, which may comprise up to 25% of the new hires, will be paid a minimum of $11 per hour.

Apple governmental affairs representative Jason Lundgaard was on hand for the session and answered several questions for the county commissioners.

Travis County is the final governmental entity to approve its portion of the total tax incentive plan, which is estimated to yield $35-36 million for Apple in exchange for adding the jobs and facilities. The State of Texas and the City of Austin previously approved their pieces of the deal.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iOS 26 Screens

Here Are All the iOS 26 Features That Require iPhone 15 Pro or Newer

Thursday June 12, 2025 4:53 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has introduced some major changes to the iPhone experience, headlined by the new Liquid Glass redesign that's available across all compatible devices. However, several of the update's features are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, since they rely on Apple Intelligence. The following features are powered by on-device large language models and machine...
CarPlay Liquid Glass Dark

Apple to Let iPhone Users Watch Videos on CarPlay Screen While Parked

Thursday June 12, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple this week announced that iPhone users will soon be able to watch videos right on the CarPlay screen in supported vehicles. iPhone users will be able to wirelessly stream videos to the CarPlay screen using AirPlay, according to Apple. For safety reasons, video playback will only be available when the vehicle is parked, to prevent distracted driving. The connected iPhone will be able to...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Hate iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design? Here's How to Tone It Down

Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:22 pm PDT by
iOS 26 features a whole new design material that Apple calls Liquid Glass, with a focus on transparency that lets the content on your display shine through the controls. If you're not a fan of the look, or are having trouble with readability, there is a step that you can take to make things more opaque without entirely losing out on the new look. Apple has multiple Accessibility options that ...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...
Mac Studio Feature

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:14 am PDT by
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March. As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...

Top Rated Comments

Mattie Num Nums Avatar
171 months ago
11 bucks an hour. People at In n Out flipping burgers start at 10.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rjohnstone Avatar
171 months ago
Apple got a sweet deal out of that one.
$35 million in tax breaks for creating low level tech jobs.
It will take decades for the City/County/State to break even on the deal.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
d4rkc4sm Avatar
171 months ago
new mac pros today?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
you people smh Avatar
171 months ago
Whew!!!

Glad they got that figured out. I was worried that apple might not be able to survive without the $35 million government subsidy.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rocketman Avatar
171 months ago
Obviously mister Forbes is very concerned that people may demand that he and those like him paid more in taxes.
You are simply wrong. The Forbes flat tax plan and even the Ryan budget already passed in the house, reduces marginal rates but substantially reduces deductions. That increases the net cash payments of the very richest (top 20% not merely top 1%), and provides more net revenue to the government which is mandated to be applied to deficits and debt, not new spending.

The political debate is (D) higher taxes on the rich AND more debt and deficits, vs. (R) higher taxes on the rich with lower marginal rates to spur growth AND less debt and deficits.

The advantage to less debt and deficits is less money flowing to government bonds and more flowing to commercial bonds which is the exact source of employment and growth and wage increases. It really is that simple!

It is this exact cause that we are seeing lower wages, employment, and growth. The government sucking all the cash out of the bond market. A really big and hurtful sucking sound to real people. Side effect? Currency debasement and zero or less rate of return on savings. High gas and grocery prices.

This is real stuff.

Rocketman
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Stella Avatar
171 months ago
Apple shouldn't require tax incentives.. they have enough money without leaching off tax payers.

BTW - it isn't being anti apple, its being realistic.. they have more money than god at the moment. They don't need incentives, just use their own hoard of money.

Average pay of $35,000? Low paying jobs.. sure it'll help the local economy. But ultimately, its like Apple ( or any other company ) have the attitude that they are doing the local area a favour by creating new jobs.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)