Window Begins to Close on 30 Day Notice for Scooter Store Payment to City

(New Braunfels, TX) --  The Scooter Store has only 15 days left to pay the 1.3-million dollars the City of New Braunfels says it owes them as part of a claw back measure from their 2009 incentive agreement. 

At the time, the Scooter Store was being wooed by other cities in the area who wanted the large, private employer to relocate.  But the city and its 4B Board stepped in and offered 3.4-million dollars in incentives for the company to stay in New Braunfels. 

That agreement included facility upgrades for the company’s leased building on Loop 337 at Hwy 46, plus upgrades to the old Kroger building (turning the former grocery store into office space), and the city offered the Scooter Store cash incentives for job creation and retention. 

Specifically, for every $20 an hour job (up to 500 jobs) created by the Scooter Store, the company would get 66-hundred dollars from the city. 

In the end, the Scooter Store created 401 of those jobs, giving them a payment equaling roughly 2.6-million dollars. 

The city now says that after auditing the Scooter Store’s employment data, about half of those jobs were not maintained, and that the claw-backs in the incentive agreement contractually obligate the Scooter Store to pay back 1.3-million dollars, and the city has given the company 30 calendar days to pay back that money. 

That demand was sent by certified letter and received on Feb. 19^th, the day before the local Scooter Store offices were raided by the FBI and other federal agencies and just 2 days before the company was scheduled to make an appearance before the city’s 4B Board (an appearance that was canceled because of events the previous day). 

Yesterday marked the half-way point in that 30-day window, which runs out on March 20^th. 

KGNB News contacted the Scooter Store to find out their plans for paying that 1.3-million dollars to the city, and in a written statement the Scooter Store says that it is in contact with the 4B Board and “will share information when appropriate.” 

Of course, stay tuned to KGNB News as that 30 day window closes for more updates.