Allen County Council members approved an estimated $6.6 million property tax break for General Motors on Thursday in hopes of luring a $94.5 million investment in the assembly plant’s paint shop.
GM Plant Manager Mike Glinski told the County Council that the investment is crucial to keeping the plant on par with its GM peers and competitors, and the property tax break on the new equipment will help persuade GM to approve the project.
Glinski said the project will replace and renovate the robots in the paint shop, some of which are original to the plant, built in the early 1980s. And while the project – if approved – would not add any new jobs, it would ensure that the 3,800 full-time jobs currently at the plant remain.
Usually, the property tax breaks the county offers are phase-ins, where the increase in taxes a property owner would pay on a new building or equipment are phased in over a period of up to 10 years.
But when the plant was lured to the area, part of the package included approving it for the maximum benefit of any incentive able to be offered.
The break approved Thursday lets GM skip paying the estimated $564,335 in new taxes on the equipment yearly for 10 years.
The council voted 6-0 to approve the tax relief; member Bill Brown, R-at large, was absent during the vote.
