The Iron County Commission became the latest taxing entity in the county to approve an incentive package intended to bring jet manufacturing and 1,200 jobs to the county.
In 2011, Cedar City-based Metalcraft purchased the assets of the SJ30 light jet program from bankrupt Emivest Aerospace for $3.5 million, calling the endeavor SyberJet. The director of economic development for Cedar City and Iron County has been working with the company to bring the manufacture of the SJ30 light jet to industrial areas near Cedar City’s airport.
The deal offers a 100 percent tax increment refund for 15 years if the company follows an aggressive employment and capital improvement schedule that will result in 1,200 new jobs and $350 million to $400 million in capital improvements over the life of the agreement. In practice, the incentive would use a 2013 tax baseline for five parcels of land contained within the development project area. Every year, Metalcraft would pay their taxes on these parcels and be refunded any amount over the working baseline so long as it maintains its employee and capital improvement requirements. The Spectrum
