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Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry has passed away after a brief battle with cancer.

Allen County Clears Way for Potential GM Investment

General Motors

Allen County Council cleared the way Wednesday for General Motors to make a $1 billion investment in its Fort Wayne plant. Now it’s up to GM to decide whether or not to go forward with the plan. 

The Council unanimously approved a 10-year tax abatement for GM. That means a tax rate of zero percent, for ten years, on the company’s new property and equipment.

According to the county auditor Tera Klutz, that could save GM more than $95 million.

But Klutz says a lot of estimates go in to that final figure – from the value of new property, to future tax rates, to the amount of money GM actually puts into the investment. She says at this point, there’s no way to assess the actual savings.

Council agreed to forgive the taxes because it wants GM to stay in town, after all, the Fort Wayne plant employs more than 4,000 people.

But is the abatement worth it?

Purdue economist Larry DeBoer says there are other things companies care about more, besides taxes, when they’re investing. Things like labor, transportation, and energy costs.

And, there’s no way to know if the abatement determines whether or not this investment actually takes place.

“Because if the investment would have taken place anyways," says DeBoer, "then you could have been taxing that equipment and those new buildings, but you’re not, and the tax rate on everybody else will now be higher than it would have been.”

For now the ball’s in GM’s court whether they decide to invest in the Fort Wayne plant.