By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
The Great Bend City Council voted 5-1 Monday to deny the application for a property tax exemption for Fuller Industries, Inc.
In 2013, Fuller was granted a 10-year exemption but it was terminated in 2021 after the property was sold to new owners. Fuller requested a new application be retroactive back to 2021 as there are outstanding taxes on the property currently.
Dale Hogg, with Fuller’s Public Relations and Marketing, requested tabling the decision one month because Fuller’s general manager and CEO were both out of town.
"We own the fact that we have some back taxes," said Hogg. "I met with Barton County Treasurer Jim Jordan...he supports us and he's put things on hold until we get this whole process worked through. We are moving forward and expanding, but we're still feeling the hit from the COVID-19 pandemic where we lost a lot of our employees."
There are 118 employees at Fuller, a company that stated in their tax exemption application that their revenue budget for 2023 was $24 million, up from $16 million in 2022.
"In July of 2023, the hailstorm ripped the roof off of our building and knocked us offline for a short time," said Hogg. "We're still playing catch-up from all of that."
Great Bend’s Administrative Review Committee recommended the tax exemption be denied because the property already had an exemption, there are outstanding taxes due and Fuller’s projected revenue for 2025 is substantial. Councilmember Jolene Biggs echoed the committee’s findings.
"Fuller has been granted a 10-year exemption already," said Biggs. "When you go to the State and talk with them, they've never seen the same company get an exemption again. Technically, it's the same building and those kind of things."
Fuller has been in Great Bend since 1973. In 2012, ownership filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to the application, the company was eventually purchased out of bankruptcy by Innovative Livestock Services (ILS). ILS was preparing to file bankruptcy again in 2021 until current owner, GDI Inc., purchased the assets and property.
"What has happened is other business have come to me and said 'can I feel out the paperwork and get a tax exemption?'" added Biggs. "This scenario could play out over and over again. I don't want to open a can of worms with all of the other businesses in town who are adding employees and equipment to their businesses."
Last spring, Great Bend officials noted Fuller Industries’ property tax the previous year was approximately $190,000.