Sunnyside Ethanol, LLC, a subsidiary of Consus Ethanol, LLC, will bring significant economic benefits to the Curwensville community. We think it is important to communicate the estimated benefits to the Curwensville community of the construction and operation activities of the Sunnyside plant. We have based the following amounts on our anticipated financial projections and the study findings contained in “Contribution of the Ethanol Industry to the Economy of the United States”, February 20, 2008, issued by John Urbanchuk, Director of LECG, LLC.
• Our construction costs will be greater than $300 M (million), which construction of designed to take a little more than 2 years. The spending it will pump into the local economy will generate a one time boost of over $700 M as each dollar of spending circulates through out the local economy.
• Our plant will spend over $180 M annually on locally provided goods and services ranging from in-house labor, contracted labor and services, various materials, corn purchases and transportation. It is our goal to purchase as much local corn as the area’s farmers can competitively sell to us.
• Our plant will directly employ about 70 people. This action, according to the Urbanchuk study, will support the creation of as many as 10 times that amount in permanent new jobs throughout the entire economy. That would be 700 new jobs.
• We have not asked for any local real estate tax abatements from the County, the School District, nor the Borough of Curwensville. We understand that the current mill levies are 21, 64, and 30 mills respectively and the current assessment is about 25 percent of current values. A significant portion of our construction costs will be for equipment and machinery. Such purchases are considered personal property and not classified as real estate. The portion that is considered real estate will be subject to the county, school district, and borough real estate taxes. If one assumes that, for example, that $50 M of our costs are classified as subject to real estate taxes, the new real estate tax revenues in total will approximate $1.5M annually. If the real estate classification amounts are greater, the taxes would change proportionally.
Both our one time and annual economic effects will be extremely beneficial to the local Curwensville community. These effects include new jobs, additional income and tax revenue and the expansion of the base of the local economy.
Eric P. Wallace, CEO