The Gregg County Commissioners Court approved a resolution that opens the door for Republic Services Inc. to improve its facilities on Four S Industrial Boulevard near Kilgore through a third-party bond financing technique allowed under a 41-year-old economic development tool.
Republic Services wants to use tax-exempt bonds to improve 29 of its solid-waste disposal facilities in the state, including up to $5.9 million in upgrades and expansion at its Gregg County landfill over the next three years, James Murphy with Republic said.
Among those projects are $6.9 million in improvements to its Jacksonville facility, $5 million to its Tyler facility and $5 million at its Mount Pleasant facility, according to a notice the company posted Feb. 21 in the News-Journal. Not a penny would come from Gregg County tax coffers, authorities said.
Houston attorney Paige Abernathy with the Bracewell law firm that represents Republic told Gregg County commissioners in a statement, “The approval of the county is not to be construed as a representation or warranty or other undertaking of any kind by the county with respect to the bonds or the solid-waste disposal facilities, and the county will not be obligated to pay the bonds or otherwise incur any liability in respect thereof. Rather, the approval is to be granted solely for purposes of complying with Texas law and federal tax law.”