DeKalb Mayor Frank Van Buer broke a 3-3 tie Sept. 26 to pass a consideration that offers DeKalb’s incoming businesses a five-year tax break.

Tax abatements, or breaks, have become the standard for communities that wish to entice corporations to build in the township.

The package, although a gift to all businesses, purposely favors knowledge and research-based companies.

“The rationale for this modification is to attract companies that benefit from the unique technical and cultural resources available at NIU,” according to the consideration in the city council agenda.

“NIU has the best accounting program. We should be going after businesses that can use that asset,” policy administrator Paul Rasmussen said. He also said the strong graphic arts program could be used to entice web design companies.

“While I may have a philosophic difference [with the tax abatement policy], tax incentives get us into the game,” Van Buer said.

The tax agreement would stipulate a minimum hourly wage of $11, with an average wage of $14 per hour for industrial companies. The average wage for knowledge-based companies is required to be $20 per hour.

Although the policy favors certain companies, it does not do so to the point other companies would be discouraged from relocating to DeKalb. City officials are still trying to work out what sorts of businesses they want to see here, though.

“We need a handle on the impact of a logistics-based company,” 3rd Ward Alderman Steve Kapitan said. He worries most about truck traffic, an issue that has riled up many in the city.

Other factors caused 5th Ward Alderman Pat Conboy, 4th Ward Alderwoman Donna Gorski and Kapitan to vote down the consideration.

Conboy wanted the necessary average wages of industrial employees raised.

Van Buer acknowledged he, as well, was still digesting the night’s decision, “We are all wrestling with this.”

Other potential incentives for new corporations include fee waivers, expediting the transition process and offering rebates on utility taxes.

The next step, before the plan returns in ordinance form, will be meetings between the city staff and other taxing bodies that need to approve the agreement. These taxing bodies include officials from the school board, township, county, library district, sanitary district, park district and forest preserve district.

“The tax abatement consideration has not been brought to us formally,” said school board president Andy Small, but “the school board has supported tax abatements in the past.”

Small said there are always quality of life concerns and he brought up the conundrum of choosing between industrial and warehousing versus high-tech corporations.

DeKalb lost a 500-job Lowe’s distribution center to Rockford last month, partly because of tax abatement issues. Likewise, tax breaks were crucial to attracting Target to the area, Rasmussen said.

At the same time, abating taxes affects the revenue stream only slightly, he said.