Sep. 25—Bernalillo County commissioners unanimously approved a tax break for Ebon Solar on Tuesday to encourage the solar cell manufacturing company to set up shop in New Mexico.
The company is planning a facility at Mesa del Sol, which should create 911 jobs by December 2033. The average salary for those jobs will be $80,149, according to the company's industrial revenue bond application. Ebon Solar is headquartered in Singapore and has subsidiaries in the Americas, Asia and Australia.
Commissioners approved up to $942 million in industrial revenue bonds for Ebon Solar. Industrial revenue bonds are used to incentivize development by offering tax exemptions on the purchase of land, building or equipment. Bernalillo County has previously used the economic tool to incentivize the development of Sawmill Market and Sandia Peak Ski Co.
Ebon Solar's industrial revenue bonds have a 30-year term with 80% tax abatement on real property and a 20% payment in lieu of taxes required. The IRB also offers a 100% tax abatement on personal property.
Ebon Solar has agreed to finance public infrastructure within the Tax Increment Development District and Public Improvement Development District where the project will be located, according to the IRB application.
Ebon Solar has already partnered with the state and the city of Albuquerque. The New Mexico Economic Development Department is providing $10 million for the company through Local Economic Development Act funding, while the Albuquerque City Council approved $1 million in LEDA funding last week.
"Nine-hundred-and-eleven jobs. That's nothing to Texas, that's nothing to Colorado, that's nothing to Arizona, but it's everything to New Mexico," said Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada, who sponsored the ordinance.
Manufacturing jobs helped break the cycle of poverty in his family, Quezada said. He said his brother got a job with General Electric, which allowed him to send his children to St. Pius and set them on a path for well-paying jobs.
"When I knocked on doors when I first ran for office, the number one ask for me as a county commissioner was 'please support jobs,'" Quezada said. "'My kids need jobs, I need jobs,' so my goal has been through my tenure here to figure out and work with whoever would want to come here to provide jobs and opportunities. ... That's how we break the cycle of poverty in New Mexico."