TIF Notes: Committee hears Cronus update, discusses next step for open properties

By Kayleigh Rahn
Editor’s Note: The Tuscola City Council works in smaller subcommittees in order to efficiently study issues in-depth, this includes the Tax-Increment Financing Subcommittee. While committees cannot make final decisions on issues, the members make recommendations, on issues they have studied, to the full City Council for final votes on issues. Discussions during these meetings are preliminary notes and discussion topics only.

The city council’s TIF committee met Monday, Dec. 3. Talking points included:

• Cronus Fertilizers
Economic Development Director Brian Moody said there is no significant update for the $1.726 billion Cronus Fertilizers plant, and he doesn’t expect to hear much news until after the first of the year.

“Everything is focused on finance,” Moody said. He added that construction is slated to begin in the second quarter of 2019.

“The biggest thing we have coming up, probably after the first of the year, we are going to hold a public hearing for the Enterprise Zone boundary amendment application,” he added.

The Douglas County Enterprise Zone was put into place last year, although it purposefully left out the Cronus location because of the previous incentive package offered to potential site by the state. When the county applied for the EZ, it was understood that Cronus would be drawn in late if the state-based incentive package expired prior to the start of construction.

“Really, the only thing holding us up there was the governor’s race,” Moody said about amending the EZ boundary. Governor-elect JB Pritzker set his Economic Opportunity Committee Monday, and Moody noted that Laura Frerichs was made a co-chair of the committee, which is a positive move for his local efforts.

The full story can be found in the Wednesday, Dec. 5 edition of The Tuscola Journal.