Copyright syracuse.com
Syracuse, N.Y. -- Onondaga County will hold a public hearing Thursday on plans to give Micron Technology about $2 billion in breaks on sales and property taxes. That would be in addition to the $22.6 billion in subsidies that Micron is already slated to receive from the state and federal governments to build a chipmaking complex in the town of Clay. The Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency will hold the hearing at 6 p.m. Thursday. It will be held at Clay Town Hall, 4401 Route 31. Members of the public can voice their opinions on the project and the proposed tax agreement. You can also watch the hearing on Zoom. The documents are posted on OCIDA’s website. Micron plans to build up to four semiconductor manufacturing plants at the corner of Route 31 and Caughdenoy Road. The tax breaks apply only to the first two plants. If the company builds and outfits those two plants, it could receive more than $24 billion in taxpayer subsidies. Most of that is from the federal government, in the form of a grant and a tax credit for the buildings and the machines that are installed inside. The state would also give Micron about $2.2 billion. From the county, Micron could receive a $1.76 billion exemption from state and local sales taxes on construction materials. Micron would also get a $284 million break on taxes it would have to pay to the county, the town of Clay and the North Syracuse school district. Instead of property taxes, Micron would make payments totaling $84.5 million over 49 years. Without the tax deal, Micron’s local property tax bill would come to $368.4 million during the same period, OCIDA says. That means Micron will pay less than 25% of what it would owe if it paid full taxes. Those sales and property tax breaks are the subject of the hearing on Thursday. The state of New York negotiated the terms three years ago when it recruited Micron to build in Clay. The subsidies from all levels of government add up to about half of the $51 billion Micron says it will spend to build and equip the first two factories. Those plants will be built over the next eight years, with the first chips produced in 2030. Micron posted a record $8.54 billion in profits in its fiscal 2025 year, which ended in August. Micron is also asking for $394,310 in property tax breaks on a related project, a rail spur across Caughdenoy Road from the factory site. Micron says it will use rail cars rather than trucks to haul in millions of cubic yards of stone that will level the swampy, low-lying site. Micron says it plans to start clearing the land for the factories and rail spur by the end of the year. Nothing can happen, however, until the development agency finishes and approves the 20,000-page environmental report. No date has been set for that approval, but it’s expected to come sometime in November. Micron says the first factory would start producing chips in 2030 and the second in 2033.
