GREENFIELD — Ten companies in the city will continue receiving tax breaks on investments they’ve made to their businesses in recent years.
Officials, aided by the Hancock Economic Development Council, found all to be in substantial compliance during Greenfield City Council’s annual review of the tax abatements last week.
The 10-year breaks, which companies can apply for when they make building and equipment investments, fully abate taxes on those improvements in their first year before gradually phasing in the liability over the years that follow. When determining whether to continue an abatement for another year, one of the factors Greenfield City Council often considers is whether the companies’ investments led to the addition of employees. The county economic development council helps confirm this by checking that the investments have been made and verifying companies’ payrolls.
While there were some hitches, officials were forgiving in light of how the COVID-19 pandemic upended much of the economy.
Before addressing companies’ abatement compliance for calendar year 2021 pertaining to taxes due in 2022, the council attended to a break on a levy owed this year for Avery Dennison Corporation’s 300,000-square foot expansion completed in 2019. The company, which makes pressure-sensitive labels, prepared paperwork for compliance with its abatement last year, but only provided it to the Hancock County assessor’s office and not to the county auditor’s office or the Greenfield City Council, as required by state law.
“When that abatement gets terminated, it gets their attention when they get the amended tax bill, for sure,” said Randy Sorrell, executive director of the Hancock Economic Development Council.
It prompted the company to seek a waiver for its noncompliance and get the abatement reapplied.
John Powers, indirect tax manager for Avery Dennison, apologized to the city council.
“With the situation of working from home and COVID, I didn’t have all the instructions with me,” Powers said.
The council unanimously passed a resolution waiving the noncompliance.
“Twenty-twenty was kind of a different year,” Greenfield Mayor Chuck Fewell said. “A little hard on everybody, I think, all year long, and certainly there are ways and there are times these things do occur.”
Avery Dennison filed this year’s paperwork on time, which council members also found in compliance. Council members approved continuing an abatement on equipment in the plant as well.
The company that owns the property where BWI started making brake and suspension systems in 2019 has abatements for that real estate along with equipment there. Its paperwork notes 234 employees, however, more than 200 fewer than estimated the plant would have.
The plant temporarily laid off 336 workers in March 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic before starting to ramp back up again a couple months later.
“Not making excuses for them, because I want to have as many people employed as possible, but it’s been tough on people to find employees and get everything back to normal,” Fewell said.
Sorrell reminded council members they’re tasked with determining whether the benefiting companies are in substantial compliance with their abatements, not necessarily exact compliance, and asked that they decide in favor of the former, which they did.
Yamaha Motor Corporation USA has abatements for its recently completed 50,000-square foot plant on Greenfield’s north side and equipment for making marine propellers. It also is short on its estimated employee count — 21 — about a quarter of what was expected.
“Because of COVID, they’re slowly getting their production up,” Sorrell said. “They’re headed in the right direction.”
Covance Laboratories, Inc. has abatements for the rehabilitation and expansion of a building along with the rehab of several other buildings completed in 2012; the addition of research and development equipment as well as information technology equipment that same year; and investments in IT systems and laboratory equipment in 2016.
Indiana Box LLC has an abatement for construction completed in 2017 of a new facility and improvements to an existing one housing additional equipment and workers to support the growth of the company’s manufacturing and distribution of display and packaging products. The company also has an abatement for production equipment added that same year as well as telecommunications and computing equipment.
Indiana Automotive Fasteners, Inc. has abatements for converting existing office space and expansions completed in 2015, as well as manufacturing equipment added in 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2019.
Auto parts maker Hitachi Astemo, which recently integrated with Keihin Corporation, has an abatement for equipment added in 2015. City council member Gary McDaniel, who works for the company, recused himself from the vote.
Greenfield Solar Project, LLC has an abatement for its electric generating facility of solar panels and other equipment in the 500 block of Windswept Road.
G&I IX 501 W New LLC, which owns the property at 501 W. New Road, where Photon Automation operates, has an abatement for building improvements completed in 2013.
Elanco, which in late 2020 announced plans to build a new headquarters in Indianapolis over the next two to three years, has an abatement for its current home base off Innovation Way completed in 2010. The company also has abatements for an expansion finished in 2013 and a new building finished in 2016.
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Tax abatements continued
- Covance
- Yamaha
- Indiana Box
- Indiana Automotive Fasteners
- Hitachi Astemo
- Greenfield Solar Park
- G&I IX 501 W. New LLC
- Elanco
- BWI
- Avery Dennison
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