The City of El Paso, Texas has given its first biodiesel producer a property tax break. City council members have given Global Alternative Fuels, which is planning on building a $9 million biodiesel plant on a 30-acre site, according to this story in the El Paso Times:
By a 5-1 vote, the council approved a five-year, 50 percent refund on property taxes that will be worth $37,518 in the first year and $172,935 for a five-year period.
Northeast city Rep. Melina Castro voted no, and East Valley Rep. Eddie Holguin abstained.
Kathy Dodson, the city’s economic development director, recommended the tax break for the company, which said it expected to create 22 jobs with an average salary of $37,500 in the first year.
The company’s president is Carlos Guzmán, a 32-year-old former Army captain who said he ended up in El Paso when he left the military in 2006.
“El Paso is right smack in the middle of two areas of the country, and the business traffic that goes through here on I-10 is huge,” he said.
Guzmán said he expected to have the Doniphan plant operating by March with financial backing from the Las Cruces-based Mesilla Valley Transportation, which operates 1,000 trucks.
The plant will use virgin oils as well as waste grease to make B20 biodiesel.