Click here to subscribe today or Login.
While the prospect of 90 new manufacturing jobs sounds appealing, Luzerne County Council members pressed for specifics on the pay.
The topic came up during a recent pitch for a tax break to bring IRIS USA, a plastic manufacturing company, to the Humboldt Industrial Park in Hazle Township.
IRIS is seeking a full real estate tax break on new construction — not the land — in the first year. The discount would be lowered to 90 percent in the second year and continue decreasing by 10 percent annually, with all taxes owed after a decade.
The proposed tax break is permitted under the state’s Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance program, also known as LERTA, for deteriorated areas.
County Councilman Stephen A. Urban complained before the presentation that warehouse jobs pay $11.50 an hour at another company that was previously granted a tax break.
“That’s what you give incentives for?” Urban asked. “That’s not living wage.”
Leslie Wagner, a site selection consultant representing IRIS, said the company anticipates 90 new positions and a payroll around $2.8 million.
Councilman Robert Schnee noted those figures would equate to approximately $14 per hour.
The annual salary would be $31,100, added Council Chairwoman Linda McClosky Houck.
Wagner, who works for Indiana-based Ginovus, said the payroll estimate she had provided may be incorrect because the average hourly wage for IRIS workers is $17.
“They’re good jobs. They’re manufacturing jobs,” Wagner said.
The other IRIS facilities are in Texas, Arizona and Wisconsin employ more than 3,400. These markets are different than the Northeastern United States, she said.
The company’s human resources director has been analyzing Northeastern Pennsylvania wage levels the last 90 days, she said.
“They understand that they can’t come to a market and pay under-market,” Wagner said. “Their goal is not to come here, build a $30 million facility and not have employees.”
IRIS also offers a generous benefit package and regularly evaluates and trains employees to ensure they are qualified in their positions, she said. The average employee tenure at the company’s other locations is more than seven years.
“I think that is an indication of the culture as far as providing a better work environment and providing for a rich benefits package,” Wagner said. “Their goal and way to be successful is to come to a community and provide good decent wages and provide a good standard of living for their workers.”
The company conservatively estimates it will spend $29 million to purchase the Forest Road land and construct a building with a total 1.3 million square feet on two levels, she said. The project morphed into a two-story design because IRIS decided to take advantage of automation, she said.
After an initial search in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, the company settled on the Humboldt site largely because it has rail access to bring in plastic resin, she said. IRIS makes a range of plastic products, including storage and organization bins and containers sold by several major retailers.
Without the availability of a tax break, the company would not be as focused on this area, Wagner said. Hazle Township supervisors and the Hazleton Area School Board already approved the break.
“There are a lot of opportunities to offset costs in other communities, but the LERTA availability here was a driving factor,” Wagner said.
Councilman Rick Williams described the proposed break’s gradually increasing payments as a “model” because most breaks granted in the past fully exempted taxes on new construction for an entire decade.
Wagner said the company did not want to come in and “take everything and leave nothing.” The larger break in initial years will help offset the real estate investment, she said.
Hazleton area’s CAN DO owns the land and prepared it for development around 2003, the organization’s vice president Joseph Lettiere told council.
“We’ve been marketing the property for quite some time,” Lettiere said. “It’s great to have a manufacturer utilize the rail service as well.”