The Iowa legislature will convene in a “special session” today to consider an incentive package Governor Reynolds negotiated with an Indian company that plans to build a steel plant in southeast Iowa.
The details of the plan were not publicly available late Thursday, but one lawmaker who spoke with a Radio Iowa affiliate estimated the package would provide Mesabi Metallics close to $1.4 billlion. That would be the largest payout the state has made for a new manufacturing facility in Iowa. It’s about 14 times larger than than the over $100 million the state gave the Iowa Fertilizer Plant in Lee County nearly a decade ago.
In a written statement, Governor Reynolds said Mesabi “must meet the investment and job committments it made” for the proposed steel plant before the tax credits are advanced. The Export Import Bank of the United States has announced it would extend $10 billion for the project. The company estimates the steel complex in southeast Iowa will cost about $15 billion in build.
A House subcommittee hearing on the legislation that would outline the state’s deal with Mesabi is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. this morning at the statehouse.