Elected officials consider offering companies cash incentives from sales tax

A body of local elected officials Wednesday will consider offering $1.9 million in cash incentives to a company considering investing $9 million here while creating an anticipated 220 full-time jobs.

Those officials will also consider contracting to provide $66,000 in revenue from a countywide half-cent sales tax as cash incentives to a company that appears poised to make a $30 million investment in Topeka. The proposed moves are among items on the agenda when the board of directors of the Joint Economic Development Organization meets at 6 p.m. in the Topeka City Council chambers at 214 S.E. 8th.

The JEDO board’s voting members are Shawnee County Commissioners Bob Archer, Bill Riphahn and Kevin Cook, Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla and Topeka City Council members Sandra Clear, Tony Emerson and Mike Lesser.

JEDO contracts with GO Topeka, a private organization, to promote economic development initiatives in Shawnee County and manage economic development revenue received through the countywide half-cent sales tax Shawnee County residents voted to extend in 2014.

The JEDO board on Wednesday will consider offering incentives totaling as much as $1.49 million to a professional services company — whose name hasn’t been revealed — that is looking to expand its existing operations here.