A California company with a location in the Bryan/College Station biocorridor will be reimbursing local governments for not meeting economic development targets.
College Station city council members came out of executive session during their February 10, 2022 meeting and without discussion, unanimously voted to send an invoice to Viasat for $45,251 dollars.
After the council meeting, mayor Karl Mooney told WTAW News that a citizen’s observation began an investigation that led to Viasat reviewing the number of local employees and payroll during the 2020 calendar year.
Mooney said Viasat was contacted and “they took a careful look at it and quickly got back and said we made a mistake.”
The mayor said the mistake was Viasat reported the number of all Texas employees and payroll instead of the numbers for only the biocorridor location.
A city spokesman told WTAW News Viasat had 229 employees in calendar year 2020, which is 51 short of the minimum to collect incentive money. Viasat’s 2020 payroll was $16.2 million dollars and the minimum to receive the incentive was $17.2 million.
Mooney also Viasat was “first to say that we will refund the money, because we didn’t earn it.”
A Viasat spokeswoman told WTAW News “Since 2020, Viasat has been transparent and maintained open communication with the City of College Station about the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on business. After a miscalculation in 2020 payroll data was caught, we informed the City of the error immediately. We support the resolution voted on at the City Council meeting and intend to give the incentive back.”
Click below for comments from Karl Mooney, visiting with WTAW’s Bill Oliver.