Lowndes County supervisors have voted to grant Aurora Flight Sciences a 10-year ad valorem tax exemption for its investment in the final expansion of its facility.
Without the exemption, the unmanned aircraft manufacturer would have paid $9 million to the county in taxes through the next decade. That amount equals what Aurora invested in building the 30,000-square-foot addition to its facility and purchasing new equipment.
The exemption will begin next year.
Tax assessor Greg Andrews said Aurora missed the deadline to file for the exemption this fiscal year. That means the company will pay full taxes this year, Andrews said.
The exemption agreement applies only to ad valorem and does not affect school taxes.
Andrews was unavailable at press time to provide figures on what the company will pay this year and when the exemption begins.
After spending two years at a temporary site at Mississippi State University, Aurora opened a 22,000-square-foot plant near the Golden Triangle Regional Airport in 2007. A year later it added a 66,000-square-foot addition. The company received similar 10-year agreements from Lowndes County for each of those projects, board president Harry Sanders said.
“We have never refused to give a manufacturer a 10-year tax exemption,” he said. “They have to come and ask for it. Any new equipment, anything new they’ve done, we give them a 10-year tax exemption only on the ad valorem tax for the county…We’ve given them starting in 2014 the tax exemption they were entitled to.”
The final expansion opened in January. Aurora employees roughly 250 people.
In other business, the board:
■ Amended the Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority budget, adding $16,000 for construction of a baseball field in the Plum Grove community. Supervisors approved $41,000 last year for the project and spent $25,000 during the 2012-13 budget year. The difference was not included in this fiscal year budget. District 4 supervisor Jeff Smith said dirt is being moved on the park and he expects it to be completed in the spring;
■ Reappointed Rick McGill to another three-year term on the Golden Triangle Regional Solid Waste Management Authority board.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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