Council authorizes county president to sign nine CF-1 abatement compliance forms; members urge AWS to use local labor

The St. Joseph County Council voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize the council president to sign nine CF-1 abatement compliance forms certifying abatement compliance for companies in unincorporated portions of the county.

Steve Dalton, the county’s financial adviser, reported the committee review and recommended the forms be forwarded to the auditor and assessor with the president’s signature. Councilman Tanner made the motion to authorize the president to sign the CF-1 forms; the council voted 9–0 on a roll call.

During the discussion several council members noted that the much larger tax abatement for Amazon Web Services (AWS) was not before the council that evening. Council members said they had written to AWS asking the company to “to the fullest extent possible, use our local labor and our local suppliers” when the greater AWS abatement comes up for review; one council member characterized the AWS abatement as “a huge abatement worth as much as $4,000,000,000” in public comments.

The authorizations on Tuesday cover routine compliance certifications (CF-1 forms) for nine companies. The action was taken by voice motion and followed by a roll-call confirmation. The auditor and assessor will receive the signed forms for their records and any further administrative follow-up.

Council members said they planned to request reporting from large abatement recipients in future reviews so the council could evaluate local hiring and contracting outcomes when major abatements are considered.