Wal-Mart's Polk center gets $12M tax break

Wal-Mart's planned distribution center for Polk County might create more than 600 jobs that pay slightly more than the annual wage there — but it will be a decade before the county government can benefit.

The Polk County Commission voted Tuesday to waive more than $12.4 million in anticipated property taxes for the complex, planned for at least 2 million square feet. Officials say Wal-Mart would have paid $1.2 million a year in taxes beginning in 2017, when the center is anticipated to open. The tax break could last until 2027.

Like many counties, Polk approved such tax exemptions for new businesses in a 2012 referendum. Commissioners later set guidelines on how such exemptions would be awarded. In those guidelines, however, the commission can't waive more than $2 million a year in taxes overall.