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605 <br /> <br /> President Rhodes announced that the Board would move to Agenda Item No. 8, <br /> consideration of and action on a recommendation to the City Council of the City of <br /> Paris on the tax abatement application from Sesaco, Inc. <br /> <br />Mr. Vest stated that the reason this item was placed on the agenda is because he and <br />City Attorney Schenk has been working on a new set of guidelines and criteria for <br />tax abatements for the City of Paris. He said in the new guidelines and criteria it <br />specifies that the City Council will look to the Paris Economic Development <br />Corporation's Board for recommendations on all tax abatements. Mr. Vest advised <br />that this Board will need to make a recommendation to approve or not to approve on <br /> <br /> this tax abatement application from Sesaco, Inc. He advised that City Attorney <br /> Schenk had hoped to present the new guidelines and criteria this month to the City <br /> Council, but he has a heavy load this month, and he will probably present it to the <br /> City Council in March. Mr. Vest stated that all future tax abatements will come <br /> before this Board for recommendation to approve or not to approve the requested tax <br /> abatements. Mr. Vest said on the new tax abatement guidelines and criteria in on a <br /> floating scale, and explained that the greater investment in real and personal property, <br /> the greater number of employment, and the dollars in pay rate. He said the greater <br /> that a company qualifies in each one of those, the greater the tax abatement benefits <br /> will be to that company. Mr. Vest also advised that there will be a maximum for the <br /> minimum limits where they must at least make a certain investment service <br /> performance to get the tax abatement, and then, you have to have maximum where <br /> you are above that limit, then the contract is negotiated independently. He said that <br /> most of the contracts will call for a few years of 100% abatement with a phase in with <br /> the percentage phase in each year after that, until it is placed on the tax roll. Mr. Vest <br /> advised that if they exceed the scale that is in the guidelines and criteria, the contract <br /> will be negotiated independently. <br /> <br />Mr. Vest advised that on the Sesaco tax abatement, they expect to spend between <br />eight hundred thousand and 1.1 million on their plant. Mr. Vest said under this <br />abatement there are no new jobs involved and the situation is job retention. Mr. <br />Vest said he has met with the owners of Sesaco and Glenn Smith and he has been <br />working with them for about a year. They have been in Paris for a long time and have <br />had control of this plant for several years and they have reached a crossroad where <br />they either need to expand the business or close the business. Mr. Vest said they did <br />decide to go ahead and make the expansion and it is going to cost them a lot. Mr. <br />Vest said in August of 2000, they were awarded a patent on sesame seed and that <br />patent is where they can harvest the seed mechanically. Mr. Vest said it was his <br />recommendation that the Paris Economic Development corporation forward this to <br />the City Council, asking the city to give them the tax abatement. He felt that they do <br />qualify for the tax abatement whether it is under current guidelines and criteria or <br />under the new guidelines criteria. <br /> <br />After discussion, President Rhodes announced that the Board would return to Agenda <br />Item No. 7C, and called for consideration of and action on a resolution approving <br />participation in the Northeast Texas Economic Development District Revolving Loan <br /> <br /> <br />