Jefferson City council approves printing company expansion

The Jefferson City Council unanimously approved a proposal brought by the Modern Litho Print Company after a public hearing Monday.

The company will expand its Jefferson City facility through the purchasing of new, upgraded equipment. The expansion is expected to increase the company’s production by about 30 percent.

The city will issue Modern Litho about $8 million in taxable revenue bonds to help buy the equipment worth millions of dollars.

That means the company will only have to pay 25 percent of its property taxes on the new equipment for seven years. That will equal about $1.5 million less than it would have to pay over the first five years.

The tax abatement will affect not only the city, but the Jefferson City school district and Cole County as well.

In return, Modern Litho will bring more jobs to the area. The company must add 30 jobs in the next three years and 50 total jobs within the next five years.

Monday night, the Jefferson City Chamber of Commerce spoke in support of the plans at the public hearing. The chamber said the project will boost the city’s economy.

“Eighty percent, give or take, of any of the new job creation within a community and/or a state comes from existing business,” Shaun Sappenfield with the chamber of commerce said. “So you have to, you have to in my opinion, support and continue to support those businesses to keep them here, because if you do not support, someone else will.”

There was a similar bond issue to help Modern Litho expand in 2012, according to Sappenfield.

The company was required to add 10 jobs and exceeded that by about 20 to 25 jobs, Sappenfield said.