Enterprise Zones for hogs and private jets.

The following document concerning the Illinois Quad City Enterprise Zone came fluttering over my transom recently. It's a memo dated Feb. 1 sent from Rich Keehner, Jr, East Moline's Assistant City Administrator, to Patrick Burke, Economic Development Manager for the city of Moline.

The East Moline council had a meeting on expansion of the Enterprise Zone last night, and as detailed in a Dispatch article which mentions the memo, the city of Moline is scheduled to be presented with a pitch to join in tonight.

Perks offered to the proposed pork-processing plant in East Moline will have to get approval from Moline aldermen.

The Moline committee-of-the-whole will be presented with a proposal tonight to increase the size of the enterprise zone by 260 acres.

Businesses located in an enterprise zone do not have to pay sales tax on construction supplies bought in Illinois. They also receive tax credits for job creation, tax exemptions for machinery and equipment, and waived permit fees in some cities.

The location of the proposed 630,000-square-foot plant by Triumph Foods, LLC., a site near Barstow Road and 172nd St., is not in the enterprise zone.

To get within it, the partners in the zone -- East Moline, Moline, Milan, Silvis and Rock Island County -- will all have to agree to expand its boundaries.

If one partner denies the request, the expansion cannot go through.

The Moline city council will have to vote on the item at a future council meeting.

East Moline offered the enterprise zone expansion to Triumph Foods as an incentive.

According to a memo sent by East Moline assistant city administrator Rich Keener to Pat Burke, Moline's economic development manager, the plant would employ a minimum of 1,000 workers within 18 months. The average hourly wage is estimated to be in excess of $11.75.

It's awfully dense prose, but what I glean from the memo is that Keehner is informing Burke of the desire to expand this Enterprise Zone, part of the requirements for doing so include multiple governmental entities be involved.

I'm not sure exactly what can be taken from the text of the letter, but the chart detailing current and past inclusions in this Illinois Quad City Enterprize Zone is illuminating.

As explained in the document, Enterprize Zones are devices designed to "... stimulate economic growth and neighborhood revitalization at the local level. This is accomplished through state and local tax incentives, regulatory relief, and improved governmental services".

The way I read that is that it means allowing these businesses to operate with little to no tax obligation, exempting them from rules and regulations which were created for the solid purpose of protecting the health and well-being of we, the people, and, while letting them off the hook on taxes, spending millions of tax dollars to build infrastructure and other utility services all to accomodate and for the benefit of these companies.

This sounds like a good idea, especially for blighted areas or to help start up or small businesses get a running start.

But the list within this document contains such needy businesses as:

Federal Express
One Moline Place (Deere office complex)
Deere Tech Center (rural R.I. County)
Cordova Energy Co. LLC
3M Cordova/Emerald Point - multi-national corporation and real estate development
Deere Parts Distribution Warehouse
Elliott Aviation
Stern Beverage
Shopko
Southpark Mall
Ridgewood Mall - East Moline
Avis Rental
FS/Black Hawk State Bank
and now, Triumph Foods

Other entries are more difficult to indentify, such as:

Loft Apts - Moline
Theatre - Moline (evidently the newly opened theatres near Lowes/Walmart)
Autumn Trails - Moline (condo or houseing development?)
Hynd Farm - Silvis

Click on the pages to view a larger image.

Page 2

Page 3 with list of Enterprise Zone projects