Company moving to Clarksdale with help from taxpayers

A stud welding company will be receiving funding from state taxpayers, plus other tax incentives, to relocate a facility from Illinois to Clarksdale.

Image Industries will relocate to the former Metso facility in Clarksdale, where it will manufacture threaded weld studs, shear connectors, concrete anchors, hydraulic weld ports and cable management studs.

According to Mississippi Development Authority spokesperson Tammy Craft, the state will provide:

• $300,000 grant for relocating equipment.
• $500,000 grant for building renovations.

The company is expected to invest $3 million and create 50 jobs. From 2012 to 2017, taxpayers have spent $678 million in just MDA grants alone from 2012 to 2017.

The company will also participate in the Growth and Prosperity Program, which is designed to encourage economic growth in impoverished parts of the state. To qualify for the program, a county must have an unemployment rate that is 200 percent of the state’s annual unemployment rate or have 30 percent or more of its population below the federal poverty line.

This program allows a participating entity that relocates or expands in a GAP-qualified area to receive:

• A full exemption on all state income and franchise taxes related to the new location.
• A full sales and use tax exemption on all equipment and machinery purchased during initial construction. This exemption lasts from the project inception until three months after startup.
• A property tax exemption for taxes levied on land, buildings, equipment and some inventory at a facility in a GAP area. The exemption doesn’t include school taxes or the portion of the ad valorem taxes that pay for fire and police protection.

These incentives can last for up to 10 years after authorization. The GAP-eligible counties are Adams, Bolivar, Claiborne, Coahoma, Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Jefferson, Leflore, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Quitman, Sharkey, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Tunica, Washington and Yazoo. 

There are also areas of Adams, Amite, Attala, Franklin and Lowndes counties that are also part of the GAP program.