<div>By Randy Pierce • Enterprise zones, as allowed by Illinois law, provide a mechanism for developers to be encouraged to improve properties in applicable areas by offering them financial incentives designed to attract or expand economic development but the Madison County Board has taken action to reduce this perk where data centers are concerned.A pair of ordinances approved by the Madison County Board at its most recent meeting address this situation in the form of what the legislation characterizes as “technical corrections” to what had existed previously in this regard.One of those ordinances applies to the Discovery Enterprise Zone which encompasses portions of the municipalities of Highland, Troy, St. Jacob, Maryville, Glen Carbon and Collinsville while the other, designated for the southwestern area of the county, is more focused on the Madison, Venice and Granite City area. What has been spelled out in the complex ordinance regarding the Discovery Zone, created and worded in compliance with the state legislation establishing the applicable economic development incentive program, was the subject of a public hearing held at the village hall in Maryville in late August.Madison County and participating municipalities provide special tax incentives to encourage businesses to locate, expand and retain their operations within the enterprise zones through offering sales tax exemptions on materials purchased by contractors from businesses and for projects within those zones.Among the other types of incentives to encourage economic development in those zones are property and/or utility tax exemptions, investment credit on state taxes or training, technical and other potential financial assistance.Madison County Board Chairman Chris Slusser clarified that what was happening with these ordinances is different in the case of each enterprise zone being addressed. “We actually eat all the costs for all the administration on all those enterprise zones (including two more beyond those mentioned herein in other parts of the county) and it’s quite a bit of work.”“One of the things we’re gonna do now that we found that almost all of the enterprise zones in the state do is there is a fee that can be tacked on for developers as part of their sales tax exemption,” Slusser explained. “They would pay a fee to the county that would help us pay for overhead,” something which had previously been initiated in the Gateway Zone, where there are many warehouses and similar developments in the Pontoon Beach/Edwardsville area.He continued to explain that a major component of this legislation involves a 100% property tax abatement for a specific number of years, seven or eight, before being incrementally reduced or completely eliminated at a point where the full amount of that tax would then be paid annually.“We wanted to make an exemption for data centers,” Slusser emphasized. “So, a data center someone (like a municipality or the county) approves would not be eligible for the property tax exemption.”The City of Troy has had a similar ordinance that has been tabled since October. The city council there next meets on Nov. 16 and may remove the item from its laid over status to vote on it.“There’s no need to incentivize a data center,” Slusser carried on with making this matter clear. “They’re desperate to build them and, you know, we can’t stop a municipality from granting some sort of property tax exemption but I’ve been very clear and I think in most of my discussions with all of you, you’re very clear that we (the county) would not want to do a property tax exemption for a data center.”When county board member Dalton Gray of Troy asked about the amount of the fees to be collected from developers to help cover the county’s cost of administering the various aspects of the enterprise zone projects, Slusser said that would depend on the type of the project, with a cap on what he described as “a pretty monster project” being set at $50,000. The fee in question, Slusser noted, is set by the Illinois Department of Revenue and not paid by local taxpayers to any extent but instead borne by the project developer and property owners.In some instances, independent of what was approved by the county board, other taxing districts like cities, townships, schools, may or may not wish to offer property tax exemptions, prompting Slusser to say, “It’s all case by case in the Discovery Zone. It’s not a very efficient process, but that’s the way that they’ve (the state) had it set up.”In some areas, representatives of those various districts have gotten together, he continued, to agree on not offering the exemptions.This legislation had been brought forward to the county board by its grants committee, chaired by Denise Wiehardt of Granite City, which met earlier in October. At that meeting, Cathy Hamilton, the county’s economic development director, told the committee members that “Trending things around the state are that incentives do not necessarily have to go to data centers.”“Obviously, the continuation of a data center location is a local decision,” Hamilton added, “but at least now we see leadership in regard to not have to provide a property tax (incentive).”She further pointed out that, “at least for the first time in my career, I’ve seen communities come together as a county and decide not to provide it.”“This is a great development,” Hamilton continued. “It’s interfacing with other groups – that was a new development not to have taxpayers lose money when communities compete.”</div>

Block Source: timestribunenews.com

Misinformation

Clickbait

Old or repetitive news

Explicit content

Location not relevant

By Randy Pierce • Enterprise zones, as allowed by Illinois law, provide a mechanism for developers to be encouraged to improve properties in applicable areas by offering them financial incentives designed to attract or expand economic development but the Madison County Board has taken action to reduce this perk where data centers are concerned.

Madison County reduces data center incentives

NewsBreak

By Randy Pierce • Enterprise zones, as allowed by Illinois law, provide a mechanism for developers to be encouraged to improve properties in applicable are

Madison County reduces data center incentives

Comments