Miami County offered Getrag lucrative package, but to no avail

With the June 15 announcement of a Chrysler-Getrag transmission plant coming to Tipton County, Miami County officials are left to wonder why their site was not chosen.

Jim Tidd, executive director of the Miami County Economic Development Authority, said he didn't know why the shovel-ready site at the Grissom Aeroplex industrial park was one of the first locations knocked out of the running for the $530 million plant that would have brought 1,200 jobs.

Getrag and Chrysler reportedly considered development sites in Howard, Tipton, Miami, Clinton and Tippecanoe counties. The Miami County location was eliminated earlier this year.

With the offer of free land, utilities already in place, environmental issues eliminated and a variety of tax credits available, Miami County believes it has a desirable site for development.

"We owned the land, the infrastructure is in place and the site is shovel ready," Tidd said. "I don't know how we could have offered a better deal. There were so many incentives, we couldn't put a dollar figure on the amount.

"We believe that we offered a unique incentive package together that made the site very competitive," Tidd continued. "We are asking the question what should we have done. I wish I knew why we were eliminated. The decision has been made and we just have to move forward."

Tidd said Miami County officials never had direct contact with Getrag or Chrysler officials.

"We received the lead from the state in code name," he said. "We started working on the proposal last June. The state laid out what was expected from the site and what the potential investment and job creation would be."

Tidd said the prospect was seeking 135 to 150 acres that would have included a parking area for employees.

"We proposed the south part of the industrial park, where there are 360 acres available," he explained. "We proposed a 135-acre site that could have been expanded.

The Grissom Aeroplex has its own water and wastewater systems, a high pressure natural gas line, fiber optics and a new road to the site.

"We exceeded all of the requirements," Tidd said. "There was $4 million in infrastructure improvements done to the site in 1999 and 2000."

He noted that the Grissom Aeroplex has a new electrical substation on the property with underground power lines and a dual feed electric transmission line to ensure that power would not be interrupted.

The county would have provided the land at no cost to Getrag and was part of an already established Enterprise Zone and could have been included in a Foreign Trade Zone to provide tax breaks to a developer.

"Because we are a closed or realigned military base there was a unique incentive available that could have saved a company $63 million in tax savings over 10 years," Tidd said. "We could have also offered the elimination of all real and personal property taxes for that decade."

Tidd said because there is an apartment complex on the property, Getrag and employees that lived in the complex would have received a tax credit.

By being located at a closed or realigned military base Getrag would not to pay the state sales tax of 6 percent on utility bills and could have received a reduction in the state's corporation adjusted income tax from 8.5 to 5 percent for five years, he said.

"We don't know what our total package was," he said. "We never got to that point."

The local incentives would not have impacted the property tax rate for other Miami County property owners, according to Tidd.

Miami County officials hope to learn why there site was one of the first eliminated.

"We're trying to figure out why we were eliminated as early as we were," Tidd said. "This is not sour grapes; we're just frustrated."