The Grant County Council on Wednesday rejected a proposed three-year phased tax abatement for Your Choice Digital, the cryptocurrency mining corporation currently building east of Marion and Gas City.
“We, as Grant County, have an chance to welcome a new, rising industry to the community,” Charity Bailey, Executive Director of the Grant County Economic Growth Council, told council members. “We have a chance to say thank you for choosing Grant County.”
Councilman at Large Shane Middlesworth brought the proposal to the board where a motion was made by Councilman Michael Connor to approve the abatement.
The motion died on the floor, however, as no other council member seconded the motion.
The tax abatement, valued at over $2 million over three years, would have alleviated the start-up costs accrued by the new Grant County-based bitcoin mining site.
The abatement was seen by some as unnecessary as Your Choice Digital has already chosen to build and operate in Grant County.
“Tax abatements are usually reserved for those who are thinking about coming here,” said Councilman at Large Mike Roorbach. He went on to say that once you’ve started your project and it’s nearly operable, offering the abatement doesn’t seem prudent.
Your Choice Digital was described as a “corporate refugee” by a community member who spoke up during the hearing as the Chinese government elected to ban all commercial cryptocurrency mining in their county.
Connor felt that this would be an important step toward encouraging new industry and business to choose Grant County.
“We need to send a message outside the borders of Grant County,” Connor said to the council and those who had gathered prior to the vote, “that this county is a welcoming, friendly community to businesses. If other businesses hear that we will offer tax abatements to turn empty fields and dilapidated properties into growing businesses that employ people, we can compete against other counties and those folks will come here.”
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