International Paper will receive an additional $30 million in revenue bonds made possible by the Katrina-inspired Gulf Opportunity Zone legislation passed by Congress.

Warren County supervisors agreed Monday to issue the bonds for the company after plant officials expressed the need for new equipment and improvements to its mill on Mississippi 3.

Ongoing improvements to boilers, tanks, roads and rails, water systems and electrical stations were financed by a $20 million GO Zone bond issue in which the county participated in 2006.

Terms of the issuance call for the county to own the project for 10 years, then turn it over to the company. The transaction requires a local government as sponsor, but does not involve local tax funds or create local tax liability.

Payroll at the local mill is $26 million annually, with 70 percent of the 316-member workforce being paid an average hourly wage of $22.67, said Jackson attorney Aileen McNeil, making the presentation to supervisors on the company’s behalf. No jobs will be added in the modernization.

Mississippi Development Authority administers programs relating to the GO Zone and is expected to process the application before a Dec. 15 closing date.

Tax-free bonds are the centerpiece of the industrial incentives included in the GO Zone Act, which was geared to spur business expansion and housing construction in the federally declared Katrina disaster area.

International Paper, headquartered in New York, produces heavyweight paper products at its Vicksburg mill.