Pioneer Aerospace is seeking a tax exemption on more than $500,000 in new equipment it invested in last year.
By Josh Mitchell/Informer Publisher
Pioneer Aerospace has received approval from the Columbia Board of Aldermen and the Marion County Board of Supervisors for a 10-year tax exemption, but the final decision rests with the state Tax Commission.
The Columbia Board of Aldermen and county supervisors passed resolutions this week giving their consent to the tax exemption. The state Tax Commission will make the final decision in two to six months on whether Columbia-based Pioneer gets the exemption, said County Attorney Joe Shepard.
Pioneer, which manufactures parachutes and employs 330, is seeking the tax exemption on about $534,000 worth of new equipment it invested in last year. The tax exemption will only apply to the new equipment, not to other assets such as the company’s building and land.
Pioneer pays a total of approximately $200,000 a year in taxes, said Ralph Gregory, who is the company’s cost controller. If the full exemption is granted, Pioneer would save around $12,323 annually, or 123,230 over the 10-year period, according to Gregory. The city’s portion would be $6,998 a year while the county’s would be $5,325 annually, Gregory said, adding that Pioneer would not be exempt from school taxes.
Mayor Reed Houston thinks Pioneer is deserving of the tax break because of the positive impact the industry makes on the community by providing jobs. The people who work at Pioneer buy houses here, as well as shop, purchase cars and insurance and so on, the mayor noted.
“We need to be pro business and pro jobs here in Columbia and Marion County,” Houston said. The mayor added that tax exemptions are “a tool a lot of communities use,” to attract industry.
With the closings of Orleans Furniture and Wellstone Apparel, Pioneer is one of the few manufacturers left in Marion County, Houston said. Shepard agreed that tax exemptions are ways cities and counties can give back to industries for providing jobs and payroll to the community.
One of the purposes of being in business is to make money. I am so tired of these big businesses getting tax breaks while the small businesses in town are taxed to the limit and beyond. Look at the ads to the right of these articles. These are businesses owned by Marion Countians. They don’t employ 300 but they employ some. Don’t you think that they would like a tax break too?
Wellstone was tax exempt. Look what happened when the time was up. They shut the doors. In my opinion, either everybody pays taxes of nobody pays taxes.
Your point is well taken.
The question occurs to me, “Have any of these people ever applied for a tax exemption”? It’s possible that it could be that simple – Just request the exemption or reduction!
I don’t know what the procedure would be but surely there’s a mechanism or process available to obtain an exemption or waiver… It’s possible that it is just that simple; the worse that could happen would be having the application denied.
Huh? I’ve never heard of a tax abatement or phase- in that excludes schools. Something just doesn’t sound right here, or maybe it’s just picky me.
Also, what happens if the biz goes belly up before ten years? Didn’t the city run into that problem with one of the other huge businesses a few years ago?