(La Porte, IN) - La Porte County government should receive a cut from a lucrative new deal with Microsoft over the data center it’s about to construct in the city of La Porte.

 

That’s according to La Porte resident Goot Logwood, who spoke during Wednesday’s La Porte County Commissioners meeting.

 

Early estimates indicate the deal has the potential to bring the city as much as $30 million or more per year in property taxes from the data center.  The school corporation stands to receive several million dollars annually.  The agreement between the city, school district and Microsoft is for 20 years.

 

Logwood said county government should get some of that revenue especially at a time when property tax reform in Indiana is squeezing the budgets of local governments statewide.  He said extra dollars could eliminate the possibility of new countywide taxes being imposed to make up the financial difference.

 

“That kind of money spread around the county could benefit everybody.  Not just the city,” he said.

 

The Microsoft data center is about to start construction on nearly 500 acres of farmland on Boyd Blvd. just east of U.S. 35.

 

County Commissioner Steve Holifield said he approached Dermody several weeks ago about sharing in the funding prior to the agreement particularly when the land for the data center was outside the city limits until annexed a few years ago.

He said Dermody gave no indication then on whether he’s willing to entertain such as a proposal.

 

Dermody seemed reluctant to discuss the idea then mentioned the concerns expressed about data centers by a number of officials in county government.

 

“I respect their focus on opposition to progress. We’re focused on the city,” he said.

 

County Commissioner Joe Haney is not optimistic about the city sharing the jackpot.  Normally, he said county government and other agencies like libraries and schools would have received a percentage of the funding through standard property tax allotments. 

 

The city is able to keep all of the funds, except for the amount they agreed to give to the school corporation, because the Microsoft site was placed into a Tax Increment Financing District.  That allows the city to keep those dollars and use them for improvements within all TIFS in the city.

 

One of the TIFS encompasses the downtown area.   Haney alleged the city is “basically, holding all of that money hostage for their own purposes.  It’s unfortunate.”