From the Northwest Indiana Times:
With Potash Corp. breaking ground on its new facility in June, the city is positioning itself to provide $10 million in incentives to the company.
Potash is planning a $70 million rail transfer facility at Gibson Yard. The city floated the incentives to pay for infrastructure improvements necessary for Potash to build the facility.
The City Council on Monday approved expanding one of the city's redevelopment areas to cover the Potash site. That will allow the city to use tax increment financing to fund the incentives, said Phil Taillon, executive director of the Department of Planning and Development.
Taillon said expanding the redevelopment area enables the city to give Potash the $10 million through the bond process.
Expanding the redevelopment area won't draw money from the city's general fund. Taxes currently being paid still will go to the city. What the expansion allows is for the redevelopment area to capture any new property tax revenue created by the project, Taillon said.
"By adding the site where Potash is going to locate into this TIF, we can now basically collect taxes that are going to be paid over the next 20 to 25 years," Taillon said.
The Redevelopment Commission still needs to give its final approval of the plan.
"We're not losing any tax money," said Tom Dabertin, chief of staff for Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. "We're simply saying some of the additional tax money we will receive from Potash, some of that money will help pay for improvements that are necessary."
The project will generate 225 temporary construction jobs and 25 to 30 permanents positions for the city.
Read more: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/hammond/hammond-looks-to-expand-redevelopment-area-for-potash-project/article_2fee8c21-8f88-51de-ba98-d918b3faf35a.html#ixzz1qvOKrNQ8
