SEL wants taxes to go toward broader community needs

May 27—Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories founder and president Edmund Schweitzer said his company opposes the Moscow Urban Renewal Agency creating a new district on the south end of town because he wants his company's property taxes to go toward broader community needs.

The district the urban renewal agency is considering is roughly 600 acres. SEL and another private landowner own a major chunk of the land that would potentially be part of the district.

SEL purchased more than 150 acres that has been annexed into the southwest part of Moscow. Construction of a manufacturing facility recently started on the site to accommodate the Pullman-based company's growth.

Schweitzer said in a letter to the Daily News that the property taxes SEL will be paying to the city of Moscow should not be limited to fostering development in a new urban renewal district.

Instead, they should be used to support all the services provided by the city, like first responders and infrastructure.

"Simply put, our taxes should benefit all, not just a few, as best determined by the mayor and city council," Schweitzer wrote.

The proposed district is on hold because SEL asked not to be included in the district, urban renewal agency executive director Bill Belknap said.

"Because of that, we have kind of stepped back and are reevaluating if or what a district might look like there," Belknap said. "Their project was one of the drivers of looking at the creation of a new district there."

Belknap said he spoke with the other significant landowner in the proposed district about two months ago and he said the group is considering being part of the district. Belknap said the group expressed in the past that it had concerns about tax consequences of having to be annexed into the city.

Belknap said the district likely would not be feasible without interest from SEL and the other landowner.