The county’s total assessed value is projected to climb from $1.25 billion this tax year to an estimated $1.6 billion next year, which will generate at least $4.3 million in new taxes.
Lowndes County Tax Assessor Greg Andrews attributed the bulk of that increase to a number of industries and industrial expansions beginning operations this year.
Andrews said the Aluminum Dynamics Inc. mill, the Steel Dynamics Inc. Biocarbon Plant, PACCAR and the PACCAR Remanufacturing facility, a Bitcoin mining facility and the Industrial Fire and Rescue Station will all begin paying on fee-in-lieu agreements with the county in the new tax year. That will more than double the total of fee-in-lieu collections to $8.5 million for the next year.
In a fee-in-lieu agreement, companies are exempt from property taxes for up to 10 years in exchange for a fee paid to the city, county and school district. State law dictates the fee cannot be less than one-third of what a company would ordinarily pay in taxes.
Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston credited the increase to the county’s partnerships with the Golden Triangle Development LINK, Lowndes County Industrial Development Authority, the Tennessee Valley Authority and other partners’ efforts in developing the county’s industrial park.
“When you look at the pecking order amongst all the counties in the state, we’re right up there with them, some of the highest valued counties in the state, because of what was done in the industrial park and (the capital expenditure) we’ve seen happen there,” Hairst
on told The Dispatch on Tuesday.
Andrews said current figures are only projections, though more certain numbers will be nailed down by the end of June.
Tax exemptions
In the meantime, supervisors on Monday finalized two 10-year tax exemptions, one for Burford Electric Service Inc. and the other for Quality Beverage Packing, during the board’s regular meeting at the Lowndes County Courthouse.
The $10.8 million exemption for Quality Beverage, running through 2035, covers the company’s newly completed facility on Charleigh D. Ford Jr. Drive, which was not fully operational until last year.
“Just given the way the tax rolls work, since the facility was not online until a certain point, that is now asking for the abatement since the facility is fully operational,” LINK Chief Operating Officer Meryl Fisackerly told The Dispatch.
Similarly, the supervisors’ approval Monday also finalized the $2.9 million exemption for Burford Electric, which completed an expansion of its facility in East Columbus last year to meet growing demand.
Burford Electric was founded in East Columbus in 1959. Quality Beverage was previously located at Yorkville Park Square in Columbus since 1996 before relocating to its new facility.
Both, Fisackerly said, are prime examples of companies choosing to expand business locally rather than seeking to move somewhere else.
“I think we wear it out, but it’s so true that companies looking to expand are just as important as companies looking to locate,” she said. “Quality Beverage was actually already in our area, and they grew so much they needed to build an entire facility, and Burford Electric, same thing, the demand for their work was growing so big that they chose to expand.”
Paving
Also during the meeting Monday, the board unanimously approved contracting Webster Bank to service a $5.7 million general obligation note to fund road paving and equipment at an interest rate of 3.695%.
The five-year note will be paid from internet use tax funds, Hairston said.
“The legislature allowed us, several years ago, to use the money to … have leverage when it comes to that,” Hairston said. “… “If we receive $1 million in use-tax that we receive every year, we can bundle it up, and you get higher buying power.”
Combined with state funds, the funds will put the county on track to pave portions of more than 40 county roads this year.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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