City Council approves amended finance plan for Beatrice Biodiesel

The Beatrice City Council has again approved a resolution for a tax increment financing plan for Beatrice Biodiesel.

The council unanimously approved the amended resolution in a special meeting Monday after Beatrice Biodiesel decided to finance the TIF and other improvements directly through capital markets rather than bank financing.

“To make the lawyers and the investment bankers happy then, we would like to do this all over again,” Mayor Dennis Schuster said.

TIF allows developers to pay for public infrastructure improvements needed for new development with the property tax revenue generated by the development.

This is the same agreement for the Beatrice Biodiesel project that the council approved months ago, Schuster said, and the council only had to reapprove it because of the change in the financial source for Beatrice Biodiesel.

During a public hearing Monday to consider the resolution, Councilman Ted Fairbanks asked whether the resolution applied to proposed future projects, such as the ethanol plant and the oil seed crusher.

This TIF plan only applies to the biodiesel project and does not apply to the proposed ethanol plant, oil seed crusher or paving of SW 32 Road, Schuster said.

Fairbanks also asked about the reasoning behind the change in the financing source for the biodiesel plant.

Schuster said that it was cheaper for the project to go through a bond market instead of a private lender, such as a bank.

Councilman Rich Kerr asked how long Beatrice Biodiesel would stretch out repayment of the TIF. He was told 15 years.

He then asked what would happen if the biodiesel plant were to close down in 10 years.

Schuster responded that the city would have no obligation to the project.

Beatrice Biodiesel is near completion and is set to begin production some time this fall.