MANUFACTURING PLANT
Address: 1981 N. Division,
Harvard, Ill.
Description: Cellular Telephone Manufacturing Plant
Assessed Value: $15 million
Property Taxes Paid to Schools: Still being negotiated, but school officials expect roughly $600,000 this year.
Local School District: Harvard School District 50
The community of Harvard in rural McHenry County encouraged Motorola to build its plant with roughly $3 million in property-tax abatements. Officials of the local cash-strapped schools, however, have backed out of an agreement to sacrifice their portion of property taxes and are expecting their full share this year. Taxes on the plant’s full value will not be collected until 1998 because the plant was under construction much of this year.
FARM
Address: Pinecrest Farms,
Valparaiso, Neb.
Description:1,662-acre cattle-breeding ranch and corn farm
Assessed Value: $1.1 million
Property Taxes Paid to Schools: $19,552
Local School District: Raymond Central Schools
Farm owners in Nebraska contend that they pay an unfair share of the property taxes for schools. And the property-tax burden is assessed regardless of ability to pay, they add. For example, it would take 28 Knox County businesses, including a bank and several stores, to pay the same $7,000 in property taxes for schools as one 600-acre farm there, according to data compiled by the Center for Rural Affairs in Walthill, Neb.
DOWNTOWN HOTEL
Address: 301 Chestnut St.,
St. Louis
Description: 910-room hotel
Assessed Value: $9.9 million
Property Taxes Paid to Schools:$210,375
Local School District: St. Louis Public Schools
In 1983, owners of the hotel were granted a 10-year abatement from paying local property taxes. Over the next 15 years, the agreement provided a 50 percent discount on local taxes--a deal estimated to save $11.5 million in taxes for the hotel. St. Louis city school officials estimated that local schools would lose out on $6.9 million during the 25-year deal.
HOSPITAL
Address: 147 N. Brent St.,
Ventura, Calif.
Description: Nonprofit, tax-exempt 240-bed private hospital Assessed Value: $61 million
Property Taxes Paid to Schools: N/A
Local School District: Ventura County Schools
Community Memorial is nonprofit and tax exempt, and like other nonprofit hospitals, pays neither state nor federal income taxes and is almost fully exempt from property taxes. Local schools are funded nearly entirely by the state, and local school officials say property-tax exemptions do not affect them.directly.
MANUFACTURING PLANT
Address: 4100 Sara Road,
Rio Rancho, N.M.
Description: Computer-chip manufacturing plant
Assessed Value: $333 million
Property Taxes Paid to Schools: $0
Local School District: Rio Rancho Schools
Property and equipment at the world’s largest computer-chip manufacturing plant are exempt from school property taxes, a deal by the state and county that will save Intel an estimated $458 million in total property taxes over 30 years. Sandoval County also issued $8 billion in bonds to pay for equipment at the plant. In exchange, the company will build a $30 million high school to relieve overcrowding in the Rio Rancho schools.
