Council
orders repayment of tax abatement
Businesses who left Kokomo area
targeted.
The Kokomo Common Council set what it hopes will be an important precedent Monday for businesses collecting tax abatements by ordering a business that have left the Kokomo area to repay the city.
The council passed a resolution Monday requiring Westwind Wood Specialties of Indiana to repay its entire tax abatement savings after the business ceased operation at its 1104 Touby Pike location July 19.
The city is seeking $16,725.93 in tax abatements the business received as part of the city's Economic Revitalization Area, passed by the council in October 2010. It is the first time the council has pursued the recovery of abatement savings since implementing the ERA.
“It’s not a large amount of money but there’s a principle behind it,” councilman-at-large Bob Hayes said. “We want to make sure that all businesses that come before us for tax abatements are serious about meeting the criteria to get the tax abatement.
“I think we have to go after anyone that leaves, not because the business failed, but because they wanted to go somewhere else to make a profit,” he added. “That’s not right. Somebody had to make up that money that was abated, so that means it was on the backs of taxpayers to come up with that money.”
The agreement states that if a business ceases operation in an Economic Revitalization Area at any time during the term of the agreement, the city may immediately terminate tax abatement deductions and require the recipient to repay all or a portion of those tax savings.
Westwind Wood Specialties now has 30 days to respond to the council for an appeal or repay the abatement savings from 2011 ($7,410.79) and 2012 ($9,315.14).
Kokomo Director of Development Steve Whikehart said the council’s decision to recover tax abatement savings was based on ensuring that businesses pursue those savings in good faith in an attempt to grow business in Kokomo.
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http://www.kokomotribune.com/local/x517507355/Council-orders-repayment-of-tax-abatement
