(The Center Square) – Wisconsin lawmakers approved allowing an extension of tax breaks in Middleton along with up to $2.15 million in state business tax credits for Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Senate Bill 24 passed the Wisconsin Assembly unanimously with a 97-0 vote before being signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers.
The state has a limit of allowing no more than 12% of taxable property in a municipality to be placed into a tax increment financing district, where the additional taxes that would have been paid when a business builds new facilities or renovates are allowed to be kept by the business and spent on improvements.
SB 24 waives the 12% limit in Middleton for Thermo Fisher, which lawmakers say will keep the employer in Middleton along with the 1,800 jobs at the facility. Then $2.15 million in additional tax credit incentives through September 2026 are tied to additional jobs at the facility.
Thermo Fisher has announced a $58 million expansion that it promised would involve 350 new jobs and a 72,500-square-foot building at the company’s Good Manufacturing Practices lab.
“Wisconsin is world-renowned for our booming bio-health industry, and I am pleased that, as a state, we could take swift, bipartisan action to support a major employer like Thermo Fisher Scientific and continue to provide family-supporting jobs here in Wisconsin,” Evers said in a statement. “Now more than ever, our work together to ensure companies and communities can remain competitive is critically important for Wisconsin’s continued success, and I’m glad to be signing this bill into law today.”
Middleton was already above the 12% limit with its two current TIF districts with more than $1 billion of property in its two previous TIF districts of the $5.6 billion in taxable property in Middleton.
Act 6 allows for the creation of a third TIF district for Thermo Fisher.
“Middleton is currently over the 12 percent limit at 16.63 percent,” the bill’s fiscal estimate says. “Under current law, Middleton cannot create TID number 6 without terminating a current TID, subtracting territory, or waiting until the values fall below the 12 percent limit.”
The overall value of the new law can’t be determined until it is known the value of improvements at Thermo Fisher that can be capture by the TIF.
