BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON -- Butler County officials haven't begun talking yet with Dillard's executives about getting back $2.3 million in tax breaks the county gave Mercantile Stores Co. Inc. during the past seven years.
The county will talk with Dillard's about paying the abated taxes before the company closes Mercantile's headquarters in Fairfield in two to three months, said Curt Arulf, county economic development administrator.
"There have been no negotiations yet," Mr. Arulf said Wednesday. "But we plan to talk to them."
The county commissioners became upset last week when Dillard's, the new owner of Mercantile, announced plans to close the Mercantile headquarters.
They say the Mercantile closing violates the 10-year tax abatement agreement it signed in 1991 when the facility opened. Butler County gave Mercantile the tax abatement with the understanding that the company's Fairfield site would be there for at least 10 years, county officials said.
The agreement has permitted Mercantile to avoid paying $2.3 million in real and personal property taxes during the past seven years.
The company has paid $1.5 million in property taxes during that period.
A Mercantile executive had said last week that Dillard's would work with the county to market Mercantile's Fairfield property so no jobs would be lost.
Four years ago, Butler County added a clause to its tax-abatement agreements that requires businesses to repay abated taxes when they leave the county before completing the final year.
But Mercantile's agreement and others signed before 1994 do not include that clause.
