According to the MRT, the Midland City Council decided to table three of the four economic development agreement amendments at their most recent meeting. From the reporting, I can't really tell if there were serious concerns, or if the council was just running out of time after the Culver Drive issue.

We don't know what the amendments to Sentry Pumping or Natural Gas Services Group entail, but we do know that the amendment with Trace Engines was to lower their employment target to 25 jobs and, I assume, reduce their letter of credit by only $75,000, leaving $325,000 for Trace to borrow against, while keeping their $400,000 forgivable loan intact (the reporting isn't too clear on this and neither the City nor the MDC posted the complete proposed amendments for the public to examine).

Councilman Scott Dufford has the money quote, too bad he's not even half way to the full story with Trace Engines:

"So we paid $400,000 for 25 jobs?"

Actually, the State of Texas Paid $456,000 for 114 jobs, then the MDC/City paid $400,000 plus provided $400,000 in credit facilities for the same 114 jobs.

I'm not sure what lowering the employment target to 25 from 114 acomplishes, except taking that liability off the books, since other reports say Trace has until 2013 to meet that target.