HANCOCK COUNTY, W.Va. --


A day after the West Virginia Senate passed a 25-year tax break to attract a large new chemical plant to the state, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin is heading to Houston to meet with potential investors.


Hancock County Delegate Randy Swartzmiller said the passing of this bill was crucial. Swartzmiller said the goal of the tax break is to send a message that West Virginia is open for business and that lawmakers are ready to do whatever it takes to get a cracker plant in the state.

Cracker plant facilities convert, or crack, the molecules in a byproduct from Marcellus shale natural gas into a widely used chemical compound.

Neighboring states Ohio and Pennsylvania are also competing for a cracker plant, but Swartzmiller said with this bill passed, West Virginia is now a frontrunner. Tomblin signed the bill Thursday.


Swartzmiller said the construction of a cracker plant would create thousands of jobs and the tax break is set up for any company that would invest more than $2 billion into it. The tax break that the Senate passed would reduce property taxes for 25 years.


"It just reduces the amount of state taxes that they would pay to help them make that investment into West Virginia," Swartzmiller said.


Even though the bill is a tax break, he said that money will be recovered through jobs and the down-flow effect of those new jobs.


He said he's pleased with how aggressive Tomblin has been with the bill and said his focus has been keeping existing businesses in West Virginia as well as creating new ones.


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