State of the City, tax abatement for Lafayette Council

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski provided his State of the City address Monday night. Roswarski pointed to the more than $600 million of development by various businesses as well an improving housing market as evidence of a bright future.

As for 2013, he said, if, by the end of this year, Nanshan is fully operational and operating on a wider and well-lit Veterans Memorial Parkway, that will be the highlight.

He also spoke to the city council about 10 other goals, including increasing mental health services, strengthening families and helping people get out of poverty, that are also priorities for the coming year.

"We've got to talk about those things," said Roswarski. "We've got to talk about education, we've got to talk about our children, we've got to talk about mental health issues. Those are as important as building the roads and the water and the sewer. Develop your infrastructure and your human capital and we've got to continue to have those."

The city council approved a $7.2 million tax abatement on new equipment for Heartland Automotive. The equipment is expected to add six jobs to the facility. The abatement allows the company to phase in taxes for new injection molders over the next seven years.

The council also approved dissolving the Dental and Vision Agency Fund, which was made obsolete when the city joined a statewide association last year. In all, $616,000 will be returned to various city accounts, with most going back to Water Pollution Control.