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A company that brought the first tire recycling plant to Southern Nevada but wasn’t selected to supply an important paving project on Interstate 15 last year got some consolation Tuesday when the Nevada Commission on Economic Development awarded it more than a quarter-million dollars in tax abatements and deferrals.
PI Land Las Vegas, doing business as Phoenix Recycling Technologies, was awarded a sales tax abatement of $202,155 over two years, a modified business tax abatement of $7,233 over four years and a 60-month deferral of $66,280 in sales tax.
Phoenix Recycling got its tire recycling plant fully operational in 2010 and led a lobbying effort to prohibit the dumping of tires in the state’s landfills.
After the company positioned itself as one of the leading proponents of the use of recycled tires and using manufactured crumb rubber to repair Southern Nevada roads, the state Transportation Department awarded a bid to resurface a portion of I-15 between Tropicana Avenue and the Spaghetti Bowl to a company that used a rival out-of-state supplier for the materials.
After the Economic Development Commission voted unanimously to approve the tax incentives, Phoenix Recycling CEO Steven Garber explained in an interview that his company manufactured tons of crumb rubber in anticipation of supplying the job.
Dickinson, N.D.-based Fisher Sand & Gravel, whose company president, Tommy Fisher, lives in Arizona and has business relationships with suppliers in that state, won the job.
Garber said when his company wasn’t subcontracted as the supplier, he was forced to lay off employees, which resulted in changes in the company’s application for tax incentives. Instead of having 19 employees as listed in the company’s original application, it had nine, below the number required by statute for incentives.
However, the company’s average pay of $35.55 an hour and its capital investment of $3.3 million met statutory requirements, and program rules say a company need only meet two of three requirements to be approved.
The company is expected to net new tax receipts of $625,492 over 10 years and produce an economic impact of $43.3 million on the local economy.
“I think the state lost out on this on a number of levels,” Garber said after the meeting. “We had to lay off employees and I think the state missed a great public relations opportunity on a full-circle recycling project with tires from Nevada vehicles being repurposed to a Nevada highway.
“I think the Department of Transportation needs to consider home-grown companies on projects like this. I know it must have cost an Arizona supplier to transport materials to the site.”
Three other Nevada companies, including two in Clark County, also won tax incentives in unanimous votes Tuesday.
Henderson-based VadaTech, a technology company with a client list of Fortune 50 companies, including the nation’s four largest defense companies, will receive tax abatements of $503,656 and 60-month sales tax deferrals of $108,207.
Sales tax, abated to 2 percent for two years, will benefit the company by $330,031 while it also will get a 50 percent modified business tax abatement over four years of $6,763, and personal property tax abatements of 50 percent over 10 years of $166,862.
The company will add 10 jobs with an average wage of $27.64 an hour and capital investment of $5.4 million to qualify for the tax break.
The company is expected to generate $571,205 in new taxes over 10 years and produce an estimated economic impact of $54.8 million in that time frame.
Saeed Karamooz, president and CEO, opened VadaTech in 2004, designing and manufacturing technology in the aerospace, military and telecommunications industries. Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, who chairs the commission, said the firm is an example of the type of company the state hopes to recruit to further develop that industry.
An expansion also is planned for the Las Vegas regional office of Gaming Laboratories International, based in Lakewood, N.J., and with offices on six continents. The company will receive tax abatements of $93,440.
Sales tax, abated to 2 percent for two years, will benefit the company by $19,679 while it also will get a 50 percent modified business tax abatement over four years of $63,685, and personal property tax abatements of 50 percent over 10 years of $10,076.
The company will add 80 jobs with an average wage of $20 an hour and capital investment of $322,600 to qualify for the tax break.
The company is expected to generate $1.8 million in new taxes over 10 years and produce an estimated economic impact of $101.9 million.
GLI is expanding in Las Vegas in anticipation of the Nevada Gaming Commission approving regulations that would enable independent laboratories to test gaming equipment for the state. The Gaming Commission plans its first workshop meeting on amended regulations Wednesday.
The Economic Development Commission also approved tax abatements and deferrals for Rice Lake, Wis.-based Rice Lake Weighing System to develop a station in Fernley.