Ethanol plant's economic impact unclear

Details about the $185 million project have been scarce since Gulfstream Bioflex Energy LLC of Mount Vernon announced its plans to build the corn-based distillery this summer. An attorney for GBE has said the plant, which would hire 35 to 40 full-time employees with an annual payroll of $2.1 million, would be a “tremendous economic benefit for Webster County.” Annual salaries would be $35,000 or more for jobs such as loading and unloading rail cars, weighing trucks, laboratory work and clerical work, according to GBE attorney Gary Powell.

“The people in Webster County need good jobs, and Webster County needs good industry,” Powell wrote in a prepared statement. “GBE is proposing to bring that to Webster County.”

GBE has worked with the Missouri Corn Growers Association, a lobbying group pushing for increased ethanol production, to calculate the plant’s potential economic impact. The association estimates the plant would create 1,600 additional jobs statewide that would result in a $52 million annual increase in labor income.

The association also estimates the plant would generate $18 million annually in local, state and federal tax revenues.

Company crunches numbers

GBE attorneys have said the plant would expand Webster County’s property tax base, creating $2.5 million annually for schools and government services. But County Assessor Jim Jones, who provided the estimate to GBE, said it is based on a set of assumptions.

If the plant is taxed as real property, its assessed value would be about $53 million. At the current rate levied on commercial property, annual property tax revenue from the plant would be about $2.5 million, with the majority – some $2 million – going to schools in Rogersville, Fordland or a combination of the two, Jones said.

No tax revenue from the ethanol plant would go into the county’s general fund, Jones said. In November 2005, voters approved a sales tax that effectively rolled back the general revenue portion of the county’s property tax.

Landowners near the 252-acre plant site also are concerned the facility, which will draw on an underground aquifer as its water source, could adversely affect their wells and devalue their properties. Jones said that’s certainly a possibility.

Officials at the Rogersville Area Chamber of Commerce are likewise uncertain about the economic impact of the proposed ethanol plant.

The chamber hasn’t taken an official position on the proposed plant – and won’t until it has more information, said Steve Coller, president of the chamber’s board of directors.

“There’s been mixed feelings on it,” said Coller, who is also president of Commercial Property Group Inc. “The chamber is in favor of the (potential) economic impact it would have but would like to see a win-win for neighboring landowners. It’s a double-edged sword.”

GBE representatives haven’t met with chamber officials, and the company has declined informal invitations to meet with the chamber board, said Bret Herrman, the chamber’s vice president of business development.

“There are just too many unanswered questions,” he said. “We don’t know all the facts.”

Construction catalyst

In contrast, rural communities in Missouri’s corn-rich north half have welcomed ethanol plants, all of which are majority-owned by farmer-investors.

The Show-Me State is home to four plants – in Macon, Malta Bend, Craig and Laddonia – which began producing ethanol this fall.

Mid-Missouri Energy LLC – a cooperative comprising 725 owner-members from Missouri and five other states – owns and operates the Malta Bend plant, which employs 38 full-time employees from a four-county area.

“The construction period is probably the first noticeable impact on a community,” said Patty Kinder, a spokeswoman for the Malta Bend plant.

That impact is amplified if local contractors and vendors are hired to work on a new plant, Kinder noted. Ethanol plant construction typically lasts between 15 and 21 months, she said.

GBE plans to purchase some construction services and materials locally as well as some plant supplies and equipment, according to Powell. The company also estimates between 300 and 350 construction workers will be employed by Walton Construction to build its Webster County plant.