Proposal would spend $410 million to attract unnamed companies to Hardin County site
Proposed legislation would spend $410 million — a big bite of Kentucky’s $1.9 billion “rainy day” budget reserve trust fund — to lure one or more unnamed companies to a large, empty site at the Glendale exit of Interstate 65 in Hardin County.
Although Gov. Andy Beshear called the General Assembly into special session this week to address the COVID-19 pandemic, he also asked lawmakers to expand the state’s package of economic development incentives in order to lure major projects that would make an investment of at least $2 billion.
The Kentucky Economic Development Cabinet is pursuing at least five projects that big, and the changes would allow Kentucky to compete with other states vying for those projects, Beshear said Saturday.
State Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Crofton, posted online Tuesday several draft versions of bills that he said the Republican House and Senate majorities will consider this week.
The draft bill on economic development would spend huge sums from the state’s “rainy day” fund to recruit companies to a roughly 1,550-acre site at Glendale, seven miles south of Elizabethtown. The site is adjacent to I-65 and railroad tracks, within an hour’s drive of Louisville. It boasts hook-ups for all major utilities.
The Economic Development Cabinet and the Elizabethtown-Hardin County Industrial Foundation acquired the tract in 2002 when then-Gov. Paul Patton tried to land a Hyundai car factory that instead went to Alabama. Subsequent efforts to bring other manufacturers to the property, including a car battery plant, also have failed.
The draft bill would provide $350 million in forgivable state loans to one or more companies through the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority, which typically makes far smaller loans that must be repaid at below-market interest rates. Under the usual KEDFA rules, borrowers must prove that a project is underway within four months of approval or else the state’s loan commitment expires.
The draft bill also would spend $50 million on worker training to provide the necessary employees, at programs to be run by the Bluegrass Skills Corp. and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. Half of that sum would be spent to build a worker training center for KCTCS at the Glendale site.
Finally, $10.6 million would be spent to pay off the 2002 loan associated with the acquisition of the Glendale property.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, said he expects the economic development bill that’s scheduled to be heard by a House committee on Wednesday will reflect the draft bill language.
“Generally speaking, it’s the same bill,” Osborne said. “Conceptually, that bill has not changed in the last several days.”
Hardin County Deputy Judge-Executive Daniel London said the identity of the company or companies in question is not known locally. The state Economic Development Cabinet negotiates privately, with a non-disclosure agreement in place until a deal is reached, London said.
However, he said, attracting a $2 billion investment obviously would be a game-changer for Hardin County and all of the metro Louisville area.
“We’re excited,” London said. “This would be a huge advancement for our region if we can land it.”
Kentucky’s tax incentive programs are estimated to cost at least $8.5 billion this fiscal year, according to a state report that does not include every incentive.
Then-Gov. Matt Bevin and the legislature generated controversy in 2017 by investing $15 million of state funds in Braidy Industries — at that time, an unnamed company — as an economic incentive for an aluminum mill near Ashland that still has not been built.
This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 1:17 PM.
