New Jersey’s economic development commission can’t stop Holtec International from receiving an annual tax incentive payout, a state court ruled recently.
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) must grant Holtec a $26 million payment from 2018 that is one part of a roughly $260 million state tax incentive the Camden, N.J.-based nuclear services company earned from Trenton, the Mercer County Superior Court ruled Dec. 30.
Holtec sued NJEDA in March 2020, arguing that the commission was unfairly holding the annual payout even though the company still met the criteria required to receive it.
“Holtec is pleased by the judge’s decision and looks forward to working with the State of New Jersey and the City of Camden in the future,” a spokesperson for the company told RadWaste Monitor in an emailed statement Wednesday.
In its complaint, Holtec said it received the $260 million award from NJEDA in 2014, as part of the state’s Grow New Jersey Assistance Act, after the company decided to build its multimillion dollar manufacturing facility in Camden. Holtec was supposed to receive annual tax credits from the state over a ten year period, but didn’t become eligible for its first installment until 2017.
NJEDA argued in a June 2020 motion to dismiss that Holtec’s application to receive the 2018 payout was “pending” and that the commission was evaluating whether the company could keep receiving the award.
The state said Holtec had “made false statements” on its application to receive the award. In particular, NJEDA said that Holtec hadn’t disclosed a 2001 bribery scandal involving the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) that got the company banned from doing business with TVA for two months in 2010.
Holtec provides decommissioning and spent fuel management services for civilian nuclear power. Holtec Decommissioning International, the company’s joint venture with SNC-Lavalin, owns or is in the process of purchasing five nuclear plants for decommissioning. The company has also applied with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in southeastern New Mexico.
