A service of Salisbury University and University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Crisfield Looks for Help On Tax Abatement for Paint Plant

Crisfield Mayor Percy Purnell says he wants Somerset County to share the burden of the tax abatement for the Rubberset plant.

The city owns the facility on Silver Lane which opened in 1967.

But the company, which is a division of Sherwin-Williams that makes paint brushes and rollers there, wants to exercise its option to take ownership.

The company has asked the city for two-year abatements on real estate and personal property taxes.

The city granted a two-year abatement on personal property taxes two years ago when the company closed a plant in Ohio and moved 140 jobs and roller production to Crisfield.

It did so with the help of a $710-thousand Community Development Block Grant.

The company is already paying personal property taxes to the county.

And it will be liable for real estate taxes to both the city and county once it owns the building.

Without the abatements the firm would owe over $91-thousand a year in taxes.  

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.