By Kristin Jirovsky/Daily Sun staff writer Thursday, Jun 04, 2009 - 09:33:03 am CDT
During the Board of Equalization meeting Wednesday morning, the Gage County Board of Supervisors denied a tax exemption application for personal property of Beatrice Biodiesel, L.L.C.
The property in question is the Biodiesel plant, but not the land.
The real estate will be taxed as normal, Gage County Assessor Patti Milligan said.
Beatrice Biodiesel filed an application on April 30 to allow the personal property on the land to be taxed at $0.
The current valuation of the personal property is $8,419,200, Milligan said.
On Aug. 21, 2008, two years after its groundbreaking, Beatrice Biodiesel filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, in which assets are sold to pay debts. The bankruptcy filings were attached to the tax exemption application.
The Beatrice Biodiesel plant is a $50 million investment which, if running, is capable of producing 50 million gallons of soydiesel fuel per year.
On March 3, 2006, Beatrice Biodiesel, a subsidiary of U.S. Canadian Biofuels, Inc. and Australian Ethanol LTD, announced intentions to build the $50 million facility in Industrial Park.
Due to lack of remaining funds, the plant shut down several weeks prior to its completion.
In their bankruptcy filing, the plant listed an estimated 100-199 creditors and liabilities between $10-$50 million.
About 20 companies and businesses filed more than $3.8 million in liens against Beatrice Biodiesel for unpaid services.
Control of the plant was handed to AgStar Financial Services due to the liquidation bankruptcy.
The plant was completed in March of 2008 but was never up and running.
In the Wednesday meeting, Supervisor Gary Barnard said he felt uncomfortable dismissing personal property taxes that could bring the county $250,000 in tax revenue.
Supervisor Dave Anderson agreed.
“That facility has been out there in progress for at least a couple years. There’s been fire protection, police protection, workers out there, kids have been going to school. Somebody is going to buy that at some point and hopefully make money on it,” Anderson said. “Perhaps a lot of money on it, we don’t know what the energy sector’s going to do. It just seems imprudent of us to just dismiss it because somebody is having a rough go.”
Alan Slattery, with Rembolt Ludtke Law Office of Lincoln, represented Beatrice Biodiesel at the equalization meeting.
Slattery said, based on state statute, the property, which has never been used to make a profit, should not be taxed.
The property, he said, has never been tested and cannot even be said to be working at this point.
“The statute’s pretty clear that this property is exempt from tax,” he said.
The board unanimously dismissed the exemption application.
complete text : http://www.beatricedailysun.com/articles/2009/06/04/news/local/doc4a27d23c17355335160031.txt
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