The Development Authority of Cobb County on Tuesday unanimously approved millions of dollars in property tax breaks for Home Depot, which plans on building a new Internet Technology center in Marietta and investing in its corporate headquarters.
The 6-0 vote did not include Karen Hallacy, a board member appointed by Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott who had voiced concern over the length and structure of the incentives.
Home Depot officials have said the company will invest $200 million in over the next decade, in annual installments of approximately $20 million. The company wants 10-year property tax breaks attached to each investment, meaning they will receive a tax abatement every year for the next decade.
The first investment will be to refinance $23 million in debt, which itself benefited from a property tax abatement, said Nelson Geter, the development authority’s executive director.
It’s the first time that structure of abatement has been granted in Cobb.
Property tax abatements cost school systems and municipal government revenue in the short term, but the argument for them is that those governments then receive higher tax receipts once the abatement runs its course. Hallacy said she was concerned that the development authority was going to grant abatements 10 years into the future, and that some of the investment would be in technology that depreciates in value very quickly.
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