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LORDSTOWN -- Village officials have approved a tax incentive donation agreement for the Trumbull Energy Center plant project to provide payments in lieu of taxes to Lordstown.
The agreement will have the power plant pay the village over 15 years after operations begin in 2024, including $420,000 when the project closes; $890,000 13 months after that; and $890,000 25 months later, according to Mayor Arno Hill.
For the first five years, the company will pay $295,000; for the second five years, $395,000; and for the last five years, $440,000, Hill said.
Hill said the village will also receive a 1 percent income tax from the plant.
"We were able to renegotiate this with the company for payments in lieu of taxes. The village can't just give tax abatements without receiving something," Hill said.
In October 2017, village council approved a 15-year, 100 percent tax break for Clean Energy Future to build its second power plant, Trumbull Energy Center, near the Lordstown Energy Center.
Former Lordstown schools Superintendent Terry Armstrong said then the negotiated agreement between Lordstown schools with Clean Energy Future and the village "represents an opportunity for Lordstown schools to overcome the continued losses in revenue from the state of Ohio phase out of tangible personal property tax reimbursements totaling over $1.5 million annually."
He said Lordstown schools will receive a base donation of approximately $16.1 million over the 15-year period in addition to sharing with the village net profit tax projected to be between $500,000 to $750,000 annually once the plant is in operation. This is in addition to sharing of income taxes.
The total revenue projected over the 15 years of the abatement is projected to be between $24.1 million to $27.9 million, officials had said.
Armstrong said the agreements with Clean Energy for both the Lordstown Energy Center and the proposed Trumbull Energy Center will guarantee they will not have to ask residents for additional funds for the next 20 years.
Also in 2017, the Ohio Power Siting Board gave Clean Energy the green light to move forward with building the $900 million Trumbull Energy Center. Construction and operations for the first energy plant began in 2018.
Officials said the second energy center is expected to create some 750 construction jobs over the three-year building period and 20 to 22 new full-time, permanent jobs with an annual payroll and benefits of about $3.1 million.
bcoupland@tribtoday.com