Percentage of data center property taxes to benefit LaPorte Community Schools

Read full story here: The city of LaPorte has announced that 15% of Microsoft’s property taxes will go to the Laporte school district. Microsoft is calling this its way of paying its fair share. With a percentage of Microsoft’s property taxes being reinvested back into the Laporte School District, Microsoft officials want to show they are working with the Laporte Community moving forward. "Property taxes paid by data center operators to local municipalities where they reside are one of the most tangible benefits of data center development," said Microsoft Land Development Team Member Mike Stockwell. Before the new Microsoft Data Center on Boyd Boulevard is complete the tech giant is lending a hand to the community. The city announced that 15% of the property taxes from Microsoft's new data center will be allocated back into the LaPorte Community School Corporation for the next 20 years with no-cap. City officials say this announcement can only benefit the community. "As we develop this project, we work through different ways that their resources could benefit our community, and I think education is one of those areas that we were, it was an ideal use for funds," said LaPorte Economic Advancement Partnership Executive Director Bert Cook. An estimation of just how much the schools would receive is unknown. LaPorte School Superintendent Sandra Wood says the extra stream of revenue will support academic programming. One way is the collaboration between Microsoft and the school’s CTE programs to give "We are not aware of any other public school in the state of Indiana that has an agreement to this magnitude," said LaPorte Community School Corporation Superintendent Dr. Sandra Wood. This announcement comes after a previous agreement was made between Microsoft and The City of LaPorte. The previous agreement exempted Microsoft from personal property taxes, steering Microsoft to make payments to the City's Redevelopment Commission which would then allocate that funding to LaPorte School Corporation over a 40-year term. But now, with today's announcement LaPorte's Mayor says this will benefit generations to come. "There probably isn't a better term than historic because the kids, the future leaders in LaPorte will have a new opportunity and a special education and it's just it's what's going to separate LePort from other communities,” said LaPorte Mayor Tom Dermody Officials with the Laporte Community Schools say this funding will help “maintain financial stability” within the corporation. https://wsbt.com/news/local/portion-microsoft-data-center-property-taxes-revenue-directed-laporte-community-schools-tax-agreement-redevelopment-commission-allocation-15-percent-education-indiana _________________ Stay up to date by following our social media: WSBT 22 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WSBTNews WSBT 22 on X: https://twitter.com/WSBT WSBT 22 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wsbt/ For more information, visit https://wsbt.com/ Have a news tip? Send it directly to our newsroom: wsbtnews@wsbt.com WSBT is an IN based station and a CBS Television affiliate owned and operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair, Inc. is one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies in the country today. Sinclair owns and operates, programs or provides sales services to 163 television stations in 77 markets, after pending transactions. Sinclair's television group reaches approximately 38.7% of US television households and includes FOX, ABC, MyTV, CW, CBS, NBC, Univision and Azteca affiliates.