Duncan Aviation clears Capitol hurdle

Duncan Aviation clears Capitol hurdle

Heidi Toth - Daily Herald | Posted: Thursday, March 11, 2010 12:25 am

PROVO -- The last hurdle between Provo and what city leaders hope will be a major business partner cleared the Utah House of Representatives today.

The passage of Senate Bill 73 clears the way for Duncan Aviation, an aviation service business, to bring its first wave of business to Provo. The Nebraska-based company expects to employ about 100 people in a leased facility and be open for business by August.

The bill, which now only needs the governor's signature, eliminates sales tax on businesses classified under a "maintenance, repair and overhaul provider," of which Duncan would be the first in the state. Duncan officials have said they would not be able to do business competitively in Utah if they had to charge their customers sales tax on transactions.

"We were watching it very closely and worked closely with the state on that," said executive vice president Bill Prochazka.

Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, who sponsored the bill, said he does not expect any more difficulties on making the bill law.

"This will allow Duncan now to proceed with their expansion at the Provo airport," he said. "The expectation is that this will stimulate significant job growth in Provo."

Deputy Mayor Corey Norman said he and other city officials have been at the Legislature throughout the session reminding legislators how important this bill was for Provo, Utah County and the Provo Municipal Airport. They also had to lobby to keep the state from attaching any financial stipulations to the bill; their argument was the bill would not cost the state any money because the company already is not paying sales tax here since it is not located here and would not be without this bill because it would go somewhere else.

They also spent time with Gov. Gary Herbert with the same arguments.

"The governor said, 'I'm all on board for it,'" Norman said. "He was ready to go with it."

Duncan originally planned to build its own campus by the Provo airport, but when the economy turned sour the company decided to lease a building and keep its Provo operations small. Prochazka said they still will build a campus and employ about 600 people but are waiting for good news out of their industry.

Lately they have seen an uptick in people taking planes out, which indicates better times to come.

"If people aren't flying, they aren't going to need maintenance," he said.

• Daily Herald reporter Joe Pyrah contributed to this story.