Mooresville Council to update matrix

MOORESVILLE – The Mooresville Town Council approved the CF-1 (certificate of compliance) for a longtime industry General Shale Tuesday during its regular meeting. The issue had been tabled at the June meeting. It was a unanimous vote, although council president George Watkins was absent. But council members want to update the town’s matrix for tax abatements. The matrix is used to measure how many years of taxes can be abated by the number of jobs estimated, the industry’s investment, distribution and development and how long it has been in Mooresville.

General Shale was granted a 10-year tax abatement in 2006, but has failed to keep up with its promised number of employees (less than half of what was estimated) and is well below its production rate.

At the council’s meeting in June, plant officials explained that the building recession, which started in earnest in late 2008 and 2009, devastated supporting businesses that provided bricks, lumber and drywall. General Shale had to close some of its plants in the region and made just keeping the doors open in Mooresville its top priority. Plant manager Mike Badgett and a regional manager said they have turned to producing other materials such as hardscape or decorative stones for yards and have gained some commercial customers. They are expecting the building industry to pick up steam again in 2014, but said they still needed the tax abatement to stay afloat.

Councilwoman Virginia Perry visited the plant, which is just south of Mooresville off of Ind. 67, and said real estate improvement was up from the estimated $4,864.760 to $7,655,000 in 2013. Personal property was up from the estimated $22,345,000 to $24,486,164 in 2013.

But Perry said in a report that really all aspects of the original SB-1 (statement of benefits) when the tax abatement was granted should be in compliance. And that the matrix should be updated every five years. It was created many years ago, according to clerk-treasurer Sandra Perry — but there was a record of an update in 2000 and another one, she thought, in 2005 or 2006.

Virginia Perry said part of the reason General Shale is down in employees is because it is almost fully automated. With new technology, changing costs and interest rates, the matrix should be updated to reflect those things. She said another reason to consider approving the 2013 CF-1 was that there was a good percentage of the staff who were from Morgan County and many had been with the plant a long time. General Shale does business with at least seven other companies in the local area.

Perry said there is also an Indiana law, which allows a business to be non-compliant if there are economic factors outside its control that have caused the changes.

In other business The council approved a handicap sign for a resident on W. Washington St. Members also approved the hiring of a police patrolman for Mooresville to replace Ben Goodin, who is moving to Columbus. There have been no interviews yet, Sandra Perry said, but some are planned.

She said the council is meeting in executive session at the United States Courthouse for a settlement conference on the town’s effort to purchase its own water system from Indiana American Water Company. All five members can go, Perry said, and there will be discussion on strategy for the initiation of litigation. IAWC is suing the town and council members for what it considers to be open-door violations, transparency and communication issues.

By Amy Hillenburg | Reporter | Published July, 6th 2013 in The Reporter Times