Taxing entities unanimously recommend tax break for Aurora Organic Dairy

A proposal to give a tax break to a new company cleared one of its final hurdles Tuesday afternoon.

Five taxing entities voted unanimously to recommend Aurora Organic Dairy receive a 75 percent tax abatement in the form of Chapter 100 bonds to build a processing plant in Columbia.

Columbia Public Schools, Daniel Boone Regional Library, Boone County Family Resources, the city of Columbia and Boone County were all represented at Tuesday’s vote.

The entities are informed when an application for Chapter 100 bonds is submitted to the county and Regional Economic Development Inc. (or REDI), because the abatement would be on real and personal property tax, which is a significant funding source for those entities.

“We have an opportunity to vet that, think about it and talk about the things we need to see in those contracts and think about the types of employers we want to attract to our community,” said Darin Preis, the Chapter 100 Review Board representative for the Columbia school district. “It feels like our interests are truly being represented, so that when we get an actual proposal on the table, we feel like its been filtered, processed and assessed.”

One of the conditions in the proposed contract is that Aurora Organic Dairy must employ a certain number of people in order to continue receiving abatement benefits. If it fails to produce the number of jobs promised, it will lose the abatement.

The company officially announced its interest in Columbia in January, but county and city leaders said Aurora has been considering Columbia since 2012. Many residents are concerned about the specifics of the deal, including the quick turnaround after four years of private discussions. Some have submitted Sunshine Requests to get that information.

City council approved the sale of 100 acres of land off Paris and Waco Road at the beginning of February.

The deal is also contingent on the approval of the Chapter 100 bonds. The company stood firm on a 75 percent abatement, which some consider to be large, but taxing entities said Tuesday since the large break was necessary for the company to build, the entities would prefer to have the income than not.

“So even though its only 25 percent of the tax value that we get, it’s 25 percent, whereas today, it’s nothing,” said Preis. “We’ll be able to add that to our roles and that will be able to offset some of the decreases in funding we’re seeing from the state and federal government.”

Columbia Public Schools has recently seen cuts in transportation funding, and board members are currently working on ways to offset that cost without asking taxpayers for a ballot measure.

According to “conservative” REDI estimates, Chapter 100 Review Board chair Dave Griggs said the taxing entities would receive about $1.75 million in payments in the first 10 years.

The incentives would span about 13 years for two planned phases, including construction and expansion.

Boone County Family Resources executive director Robyn Kaufman suggested that the company develop an employment plan that represents people with disabilities.

“While the unemployment rate in the county hovers around 3 percent, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities in the county is around 46 percent,” Kaufman said in a letter to Griggs.

Kaufman said BCFR were happy that the work force hired in Columbia would represented the community’s diversity, but its also hopes that can also include citizens with disabilities.

After the vote, taxing entities said they were looking forward to the bond measure being approved by commission.

“I’ve been involved in three Chapter 100 projects and I have to admit coming in I was skeptical,” said Bill Young, with the Daniel Boone Regional Library. “Businesses should be able to raise their own funds and not have to depend on incentives from communities but the way its organized with REDI, the city and the county all working together, we’re picking projects that have a good chance of success.”

The processing plant is expected to create between 130 and 160 new jobs. The average wage would be about $42,000 per year.