Congratulations!
UPDATE: I was listening to the announcement on WDWS, but the NG had the story a few minutes before the live announcement. I'll collect links to stories and such as the day continues. Feel free to post anything you find, along with your thoughts and reactions, in the comments.
LINKS:
Mattoon got it!! Congratulations!!
Wow-great for Illinois.
I had a discussion about this with someone recently - is there any mechanism for a sharing of the property tax take on this thing, specifically between area school districts? Mattoon schools looks to get a massive inflow of new dollars, without a proportional increase in students.
And, congrats to Mattoon, and congrats to Illinois.
Mattoon needs to really look out for Volk,,,,,,,he will be down there maybe trying to work out deal with them. I would bet all of the taxing bodies in Champaign County are salivating wishing they could tap into that money.
My bet is that the enterprise will qualify for extensive property tax abatements and local governments will see little in the way of property tax revenue from the plant.
I didn't think school districts were typically part of the tax abatement deals?
I believe that any taxing district can abate property taxes for newly established industrial enterprises or for industrial enterprises that move to this state from another state. They are known as general authority abatements. Also, school districts can choose to participate in enterprise zone abatements as they have in the past in Rantoul.
Quit worring about the property tax take! That is small potatoes. The big news is increased employment, large private investment, increase in housing demand, and general increases in taxes that comes from economic activity.
The additional economic benefits of the plant will be huge for the area but at a projected cost of $1.8 billion dollars that plant could generate up to $48,000,000 annually in "small potatoes" property taxes at a tax rate of $8.00 per $100 assessed.
Oh, I agree it is wonderful for the town for all the reasons you mentioned, anon. The multiplying effect of the new jobs will be a great boom.
But surely the property taxes on a $1.5 billion facility will not be small potatoes to the school district budget.
darn, beaten to the punch by the son of a barrelmaker :-)
No it great. They say that a billion dollars generates 22000 jobs or in this case almost 44000. Who knows what the income taxes will be for the 44000 people that will be working and the products they will buy from businesses in an area that could us the jobs and economic boost. There will be sales, property and income taxes generated. I think this will also affect the University of Illinois as I am sure it will have some impute into what will be allot of new technology. The great thing will be that a whole lot of Coal Miners can go back to work down in Central Southern Illinois were if you have been down there that area of the state has had kind of a rough time since they have closed those mines.
http://www.futuregenalliance.org/faqs.stm
The website lists:
"Formal employment estimates will be prepared as part of this year's conceptual design activities. However, preliminary estimates suggest peak construction employment of 600-700 workers, and a permanent workforce of 200 during the operational phase of the project. Experience has shown that each new job created from such a project typically also creates 1-2 additional spin-off jobs."
Where did you get 22,000-44,000?
I posted a blog with my concerns that it could be a political decision, but crossed my fingers to the contrary. I congratulate all those individuals and groups who clanged the bell loudly for a very creative and environment changing project. A job very well done.
Illinois wins because the general fund will receive significant tax benefits from the construction and eventual operation of the plant. Every dollar created changes hands 7 times before it leaves the local economy. Actually the 1-2 additional spin-off jobs is a low figure, because it only associates those jobs with the plant itself. The infusion of money into the economy creates many times that number because of the available money into the economy. Those jobs are indirectly a result of the plant, but not correctly identified as "spin off" jobs.
People who get money from the plant spend it on re-modeling their homes and the contractors who do that work, hire more workers to meet the demand. That kind of indirect job creation.
Again congratulations to everyone who participated. A job well done.
Now all we have to hope is that the plant is so far downstate, that the Governor does not know it is there.
To that end, I am, and shall always remain;
Rex Bradfield
Great Job Mattoon and all those who worked this issue. I had concerns like Rex this would be a political decision. I am happy to be mistaken. Obvoiously with the sad state of Illinois politics, politics did not play a role.
I read Blago's quote and just had to laugh.
"I know this is the biggest economic development opportunity for East Central Illinois in decades, so merry Christmas, Mattoon, and merry Christmas to the people of East Central Illinois," Blagojevich said to citizens and county officials at the former Time theater.
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2007/12/18/mattoon_to_land_futuregen
What about the Honda plant last year? He doesn't have a clue.
D.O.E. puts the brakes on it, may be delayed for some time, read it at your favorite unbiased (to you) news source.
Which unbaised News source. WCIA is saying that DOE is looking at the cost but it won't stop construction.
The Trib said that they're doing more than just looking at the cost, they aren't signing off on it yet, which to me is pretty much putting on the brakes until "a time to be determined", which could be tomorrow but probably won't be for quite some time. Kind of a downer, really.
(login required to view the artice, get around that with bugmenot.com)
Let me ask this question:
Electric producers are being pushed to make power with minimal release of green house gases. FutureGen, even if successful, will not produce power as cheaply as current coal plants, because of the extra efforts to bury the gas. Electricity costs will go up if efforts to avoid greenhouse gas emmissions take hold.
So, if people using electricity to heat their homes all switch to gas furnances, what is the net effect on green house gases (as related only to heating homes)? Is it just a wash, where the power plant emissions are replaced by home owner emissions? Or do nat gas and propane furnaces have lower emissions per output than electric power plants?
Man, RSW you're such a downer.
The FutureGen site is located in an enterprise zone. The offer to the Alliance included a 100% abatement, on top of the fact that the Alliance is a 501c.3 not-for-profit. There will likely be no increase in property taxes on the plant site.
RSW you may or may not be correct, environmental regulation has restricted the use of coal which is cheap but dirtier to use. So if they can find a way to use it cleanly it maybe more expensive to burn the final cost may still be cheaper then other forms of energy or at least more viable then other alternatives.
sorry anon - curious minds want to know :-)
I figure that the smart folks thinking about this have considered that higher prices might force certain electric consumption toward less environmentally friendly places, but I am not counting on it.