The Plymouth City Council opened a public hearing on Monday night to hear comments on a tax abatement request for the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation’s entity called the Marshall County Life Center, Inc.
City Attorney Sean Surrisi explained that this tax abatement request has to do with the new Early Childhood Learning Center on Miller Drive and the new market tax credits that are helping to finance the project.
“Marshall County Life Center is a not-for-profit corporation. It has a master lease of the facility to the Marshall County Community Foundation, which is a not-for-profit so there was perhaps a probability that it wouldn’t be viewed in the assessor’s eyes as taxable. Due to the fact that a portion of the building is sub-leased to the Growing Kids Early Childhood Learning Center, which is a for-profit operation, that there could be some property tax liability that during the new market tax credit financing period the budget for that financing didn’t account for property tax.
He added that this is a safeguard measure to make sure there aren’t any issues in the future.
The request is for a 10-year tax abatement at 100 percent each year.
Councilman Gary Cook asked if a discount would be provided for Plymouth residents for having children in the daycare system there since he stated that the taxpayers are essentially paying for the project. Surrisi noted that vouchers through the state are available, but think any other offers would be available.
Later in the meeting, the Plymouth City Council approved, by a majority vote, a resolution confirming the adoption of a declaratory resolution designating certain real estate to be within an Economic Revitalization Area. Duane Culp, Don Ecker Jr., Shiloh Milner and Randy Longanecker voted in favor of the motion. Gary Cook opposed the vote and Jeff Houin abstained from the vote. Bill Walters was absent from the meeting.
