Boone County Commission approves Kraft Heinz tax break agreement

Boone County commissioners approved a Chapter 100 Industrial Development Plan for Kraft Heinz Foods Company Thursday at its regular meeting.

The plan was approved last summer, but the commission and the food conglomerate needed to agree on the details of the plan and what’s required of Kraft in order to keep the Chapter 100 bonds.

Kraft and the county agreed on a tax break for an expansion of its manufacturing plant off Waco Road in Columbia. Kraft would not pay full property taxes for seven years, and it would lease new equipment requested from the county until it paid off the bonds.

Last year, Kraft threatened to close its plant in Columbia if the county did not agree to the tax incentive. Ultimately, county leaders and the taxing entities affected agreed they would rather keep the hundreds of jobs and approved the incentive.

Since then, Kraft has decided not to include the physical plant expansion in the agreement, and so, it will only have a tax break on new equipment, not the real property in the expansion.

The details of the agreement were up for a vote Thursday afternoon, including how many jobs Kraft is required to keep and reporting deadlines. If Kraft drops below the 300 jobs it promised, it will only receive a 75 percent abatement. As the number of jobs drops, Kraft would be required to pay more in taxes until the agreement is terminated.

The tax incentive is supposed to begin Jan. 1.