Barrow Journal

The Joint Development Authority of Winder-Barrow County on Wednesday morning approved a new tax break for Chico’s Distribution Services LLC.

The vote means the company will not pay the full amount of personal property taxes on its new $10 million in data center equipment for seven years.

Based on a 2001 tax agreement between the county and the JDA, the company this year will pay five percent of the $40,000-50,000 in taxes that would be due if there were no abatement.

The amount of the abatement will gradually decline over the next six years until the company in the seventh year pays the full tax obligation.

For the company to be eligible for the tax break, the JDA technically owns the equipment and is leasing it to the company. While the tax break will cost the county government hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential tax revenues over the next seven years, it was one of the major incentives used to convince the Florida-based company to make the additional investment in Barrow County.

The authority previously approved the issuance of $10 million in revenue bonds to help the company obtain lower-cost financing for the equipment.

Four members of the JDA attended Wednesday’s meeting. Voting in favor of the tax abatement were Barrow County Commission Chairman Danny Yearwood, Winder Mayor Chip Thompson, Winder businessman Tommy Sanders and JDA chairman David Smith.