By DAVE KITCHELL, Pharos-Tribune staff writer
Jenny Lombardi is concerned that local people may not get the chance to apply for 46 jobs that will be created in large part through local tax abatement and economic development funds.
The Cass County surveyor was the lone vote cast against a declaratory resolution creating a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district for a new ethanol plant Monday night. Lombardi, who serves on the Cass County Planning Commission by virtue of her elected office, asked Logansport-Cass County Economic Development Foundation President Skip Kuker if there will be an open application process for the jobs or if the jobs will be filled by employees of other facilities owned by The Andersons Inc., or by people who live in other counties. Cass County Council members have committed $2 million in County Economic Development Income Tax (CEDIT) funds to the project, which the economic plan presented indicates will be paid back to the county by 2015.
Kuker replied that he does not know if local residents will be hired, and said the county cannot mandate that employees at the plant be from Cass County or live in the county.
“I wasn’t asking for a mandate,” Lombardi said.
While Lombardi described tax revenue generated in the proposed district that can only be used as “money out the door,” Kuker said all the existing building and property tax revenue currently generated will be frozen and collected as it has been for local government and schools. The new revenue created will remain in the roughly 1,000-acre TIF district, and can be used for various purposes, including building a fire station and rebuilding a concrete road to ESSROC Materials and Archer-Daniels-Midland, which also are in the district. Kuker said 250 trucks a day will use the road once the plant is built.
Lombardi also expressed concern over the loss of new revenue for schools. The area is part of the Logansport Community School Corporation.
“The schools need it,” she said.
Kuker said the project has been given the school corporation blessing, and the project will create other jobs for related industries. Carbon dioxide can be produced, and nearby Tyson Foods Inc. uses 80,000 pounds of dry ice a day that is made from it, he said. The district also could pay for new water lines along the four-lane Hoosier Heartland Corridor which should be finished to the plant by 2014, he said.
Based on a 10-year tax abatement schedule for the plant, the TIF revenue generated could produce an estimated $6,237,580 through 2019, according to an analysis by Umbaugh & Associates of Indianapolis, which prepared an analysis for the Cass County Redevelopment Commission. The revenue represents $3,716,090 in estimated taxes on real property and $2,521,490 on personal property.
Of the six other commission members attending the meeting who all voted in favor of the resolution, several spoke in support of the plant and the TIF plan. Craig Williams, a Cass County Extension Educator, said the plant could create a rural agricultural industrial park and more should be done to attract compatible industries, such as a biodiesel plant.
John Land, one of four redevelopment commission members attending the meeting, said one estimate he is familiar with indicates all the corn produced in Cass, Carroll and White counties alone would be needed to provide enough corn for ethanol production at the plant. The impact of that alone should “bump up” corn prices in surrounding counties, he said.
Cass Plan Commission member Tom Steinberger made a motion to approve the resolution.
“I think this is one of the most positive bits of economic development we’ve had in years and I think we should do whatever we can to support it,” he said.
After a 15-year period, the TIF district would become part of the permanent regular tax base of the county. TIF districts can be expanded to include adjoining areas, but revenue generated in the district must be spent in the district.
The district, which extends from Ind. 25 north along the railroad tracks that cross the road, could generate even greater revenue if The Andersons expands its operations to include a biodiesel facility, or if there are other industrial expansions in the district.
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