[MCIC Safety] FW: Texas City Offers Tax Incentives For Industrial Facilities Certified In The VPP Program

[[MCIC] Jim Kuszaj]

>From: "Kareis, Michelle" <mkareis at morflex.com>
>To: "[MCIC] Jim Kuszaj" <jim at mcicnc.org>
>
>CITY OF TEXAS CITY, TEXAS, IMPLEMENTS INNOVATIVE POLICY TO PROMOTE
>INDUSTRIAL SAFETY
>
>City Commissioners Agree to Offer Tax Incentives for Industrial
>Facilities Earning OSHA VPP Certification
>
>
>FALLS CHURCH, VA, June 16, 2006 - The city of Texas City, Texas, located
>approximately 40 miles southeast of Houston, last week enacted an
>innovative provision within its tax code that offers tax incentives for
>industrial facilities that demonstrate a commitment to safe operations
>by becoming certified in the Occupational Safety & Health
>Administration's (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Program (VPP).  VPP
>certification is OSHA's highest honor to recognize the nation's most
>effective industrial safety and health programs.
>
>"We applaud Texas City's leaders for this proactive and unprecedented
>effort that promotes not only a safer industrial district, but a safer
>community," said R. Davis Lane, Executive Director of the VPP
>Participants Association.  "VPP can significantly improve a facility's
>safety performance.  And now, Texas City companies will have added
>financial incentives to participate in the program and earn VPP
>certification.  This is an outstanding precedent that we hope local
>governments throughout the country will follow."
>
>Texas City officials outlined and approved the plan at their June 7 City
>Commission Meeting.  The language in the provision states that if an
>industrial entity has achieved OSHA VPP certification, the facility's
>owner is entitled to a 20 percent tax abatement each year for five years
>(from the second year after it receives certification through the
>seventh year), provided the owner maintains VPP designation.
>
>"The Voluntary Protection Program is a great way for the City to have a
>measurable standard for our abatement program," said Texas City Mayor
>Matthew T. Doyle.  "VPP also provides that management and labor work
>together to achieve a common goal.  The money that we allow in the tax
>abatements will be a small price to pay for a safer community.  The
>Valero Texas City Refinery is the only plant to carry the VPP
>certification in Texas City at this time.
>
>VPP Background
>OSHA started the VPP in 1982 to establish cooperative action among
>government, industry and labor in promoting highly effective safety and
>health programs that go above and beyond normal OSHA worker protection
>compliance.
>
>Becoming VPP-certified is a rigorous and complex process designed to
>ensure that only the best programs qualify.  The process begins with a
>considerable amount of internal review of and modifications to existing
>safety and health programs.
>
>An extensive written application is then sent to OSHA.  After the
>application has been reviewed, a team of OSHA representatives visits the
>plant for an on-site review that typically lasts about four days.  The
>on-site evaluation includes an extensive review of all safety and health
>records, a walkthrough of the facility, and a series of formal and
>informal interviews with plant management and employees.
>
>According to OSHA, companies that are VPP certified as either Merit
>Sites or Star Sites (the highest VPP honor) have discovered numerous
>benefits that positively affect their workers.  For example, VPP
>participants generally experience from 60 to 80 percent fewer lost
>workday injuries, and an injury and illness rate that is 52 percent
>lower than would be expected of an average site of the same size in the
>same industry.
>
>According to OSHA reports, employee motivation to work safely is also
>improved and there is a greater feeling of ownership in the safety
>program, which leads to greater employee morale and better productivity.
>
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