A $100 million industrial revenue bond issue for the PQ Corp. at 1700 Kansas Ave. in Kansas City, Kansas, has been continued until the next Unified Government Commission meeting.
At Thursday night’s meeting, Mayor David Alvey said a public hearing needed to be scheduled with the resolution of intent to issue IRBs.
UG Administrator Doug Bach recommended since it had not been listed as a public hearing on the agenda, that the commission hold a public hearing on Nov. 14, then continue the hearing at the next UG Commission meeting and consider the bond issue then. The issue was previously approved at the UG committee level.
Katherine Carttar, UG economic development director, said PQ Corp. – Zeolyst has been in Kansas City, Kansas, since 1915 and is part of a global manufacturing and research and development operation.
In Kansas City, Kansas, it has 25 acres, employs 157 people and is interested in expanding, according to Carttar. It is a leading global provider of specialty catalysts, services and other materials and chemicals, and the products are used to improve the environment.
The proposed expansion would add land, building construction, equipment and 17 new high-paying technical jobs, according to UG officials. During the construction period, there would be 259 temporary construction jobs, Carttar said.
The project would have a 75 percent tax abatement for 10 years, she said. The IRB issue would be up to $100 million.
Carttar said the average new taxes per year during the first 10 years would be $323,337, and in the eleventh year, after the abatement is over, the projected annual tax would be $1.46 million. That is in addition to the approximately $700,000 that PQ Corp. is currently paying in taxes here, she added.
Less than two weeks after the general election, the commission heard from candidates again during the public hearing Thursday. During the public hearing on Nov. 14, Tscher Manck, who was defeated in her run for register of deeds on Nov. 5, receiving 2,161 votes, about 16 percent, spoke against the IRB project.
“We don’t want to keep paying for these big corporations to come here and to not even employ us,” Manck said at the public hearing. “This is the reason why I said we needed a new city administrator, because of these kinds of deals.”
There was an attempt on social media from Tuesday through Thursday to ask residents to send messages to the commission in favor of removing Bach as administrator. The UG Commission conducted its regular job review of the administrator on Thursday, meeting in a closed session at 5 p.m. to discuss his nonelected personnel position, and no public announcements were made.
Carttar said there is a property tax on the increment for the PQ project, so that no money will be coming out of the current taxes to pay for the project. It is all new value that is being generated, she said. She added that most of the new jobs would be chemical engineers, which is a very specialized work force.
Also speaking in opposition to the project was Janice Witt, who has already announced her candidacy for mayor in 2020. Witt came in fourth in the primary for mayor in 2017, with 1,019 votes, or about 7 percent. In that same primary of 2017, David Alvey received 4,334 votes, or 31.6 percent of the vote.
Witt said the abatement is money that should be coming into the UG coffers but is not.
Carttar said the likelihood is that PQ would not have done this expansion except for the fact that it will be receiving incentives, and money in the abatement isn’t money that currently exists.
Carttar said PQ Corp. is putting in the $100 million investment with its own money. The amount of taxes affected is much lower than $100 million, she said.
Witt said she wanted the community to get something more out of the project, and she wanted some of the jobs to go to residents.
Bach said the PQ company has been in Kansas City, Kansas, for 105 years, and is not a new entity coming in. Through the years, the company has done many expansions and the UG has offered IRBs. Kansas City, Kansas, competes for these expansions internationally, and the company could have moved to the Netherlands many years ago, he added.
“They stay here and they continue to reinvest in our community year after year,” Bach said. “They’re now paying a couple million in taxes. In 10 more years, they’ll add another million and a half.”
This agreement also allows the UG to settle in advance the figure that is used for the value of the company and its equipment, he added.
While there isn’t a requirement for the 17 new chemists to reside in the community, the company has been here over a hundred years and has shown strong commitment to the community, continuing to increase its tax base and paying more and more as they do these developments, Bach said.
Alvey said in general, economic development will expand the tax base, the UG is in a competitive environment and has to provide the incentives to allow companies to expand or settle here.
“In the long term, this benefits our community because it does expand and diversify the tax base,” he said.
“But in the short term, it is killing our community,” Witt said. “It is my opinion that Bach must go and Mr. Alvey, if you are unwilling to make that happen, it is your job to go with him as well.”
“You are out of line,” Alvey replied to Witt at the meeting.
More details from this meeting may be seen on the YouTube meeting video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IhFldTDffY .