Two separate tax abatement requests from two different companies that will bring or maintain jobs to German Township will go before the Bartholomew County Council this month.
One request involves a new industrial building, while the other calls for the expansion of a current employer in the township, Greater Columbus Economic Development Corp. President Jason Hester said.
While the agenda for the June 29 council meeting indicated the requests would be heard that evening, not all required steps had been taken that would have allowed it to happen.
In mid-April, the council created a county economic development commission that, for the immediate future, focus on an expanded tax increment financial (TIF) district in German Township.
On June 1, council members gave tentative approval to an economic revitalization area within the TIF district — which is considered a prerequisite for offering tax abatements.
Tax abatements essentially phase in property taxes for new buildings, new equipment or both to help the company offset start-up costs such as infrastructure and employee training.
Greater Columbus Economic Development Corp. President Jason Hester describes the newly expanded revitalization area as “basically the four sides of Exit 76” from Interstate 65. But more detailed descriptions describe it as running on both sides of U.S. 31, with West Larea Avenue near Heritage Heights to the south, and County Road 900N to the north.
The county wants economic development to occur within this area because it’s zoned for industrial use, and already has utilities and other infrastructure installed for those purposes, Hester said. If the 670 acres of available development sites are all used, this area has the potential to create 2,479 jobs with an average wage of $19.60 per hour, Hester said.
But a previously overlooked issue has come to light.
An important step the council neglected to take was to approve a legally-required declaratory resolution to create a economic revitalization area, Hester said. The council rectified that situation Tuesday by agreeing to a newly-written draft of that resolution.
However, more is required. First, the declaratory resolution must be filed with the office of Bartholomew County Assessor Ginny Whipple by the end of this week. Copies must also be sent to all taxing units serving that area of German Township (firefighters, police, libraries, etc.), so they can have an opportunity to voice their concerns to the council, Hester said.
After that has been accomplished, a 10-day notice will be published that states a public hearing regarding the resolution will take place during the council’s next regular meeting on July 13, Hester said.
After the public hearing is concluded, the council will examine all evidence and testimony before being asked to draft a confirmatory resolution that validates the declaratory resolution, he said. But the council could modify or rescind the resolutions after the public hearing is over, he said.
“We have two abatements we have ready for you to hear,” Hester told the council Tuesday. “But you can’t hear the abatements until after you have an economic revitalization area.”
There have only been two companies in this vicinity of German Township that have received tax abatements through county government.
One is the Peer Foods Group, a Chicago-based meat product manufacturer that acquired Mariah Foods in Columbus that built a 53,762- square-foot distribution center and warehouse on West Presidential Way. The other is Georg Utz Inc., a custom and standard plastic container manufacturer that has received multiple abatements for a facility and equipment off County Road 250W near Edinburgh.
For both Peer and Utz, abatements were handled on a case-by-case basis, and each had to be discussed over four different meetings, Hester said.
In contrast, the economic revitalization area will help establish a “Bartholomew County I-65/U.S. 31 Industrial Park” that will only require a single meeting before a company’s abatement request can be considered, the economic development leader said.
Hester repeatedly assured council members that approving the resolutions does not commit the county into issuing any tax abatements.
“It only streamlines and sets the stage for the council to consider future abatements,” he said.
Since 1999, Bartholomew County has attempted to attract new businesses to this area. But it wasn’t until the TIF district was expanded by nearly 3,000 additional acres in 2019 that potential employers began looking more seriously at the area, Hester said.
