A fee-in-lieu of property taxes between Warren County and Ergon Refining Inc. has been set after a precise figure was confirmed by the Tax Assessor’s Office.

For the 2010 tax year, Ergon will pay taxes based on one-third of the assessed value of the company’s ethanol plant it runs jointly with Bunge North America and its exclusively run refining arm, both on Haining Road at the Port of Vicksburg. The calculation totals $80,712,825 and is effective for 10 years, starting with tax year 2010. Based on this year’s millage rates, the taxes paid over the period will equal $1,484,429.92 paid to city, county and school district.

Warren County supervisors OK’d terms of the agreement Monday. In July 2009, the company secured an inventory tax exemption on $3.6 million in goods shipped outside Mississippi from the ethanol plant. Both tax breaks stemmed from formal intentions signed in 2006 when construction began on the $126 million facility. Approval of the substitute tax method was also secured from the Mississippi Development Authority. Supervisors cited a missed paperwork submission deadline last June for not acting on the property-related exemption in time for the 2009 tax year.

Bunge-Ergon LLC, which operates the ethanol plant, paid $53,838.42 in property taxes for 2009, according to tax records. More than $44,700 in property taxes was paid on other properties managed by Ergon’s refining, trucking, construction and marine and industrial supply operations. Officials with Ergon Inc., its Jackson-based parent company, has said it pays about $5 million in property, use and other taxes.

Exemptions for industrial expansion, typically new equipment, are expected to be taken up by both Vicksburg and Warren County by the end of May. In 2009, such exemptions were green-lighted by both local governments for Anderson-Tully, Cooper Lighting and LeTourneau Technologies Inc.

Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com