By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Councilors will consider rewriting the tax agreement with Wal-Mart for a third time.

The latest draft would require the retailer to pay the city if work on the second phase of its grocery distribution center is not complete by April 1, 2007.

“This just increases the city’s insurance,” said Greg Mitchell, assistant city administrator. “We’ve had the same agreement in action since we started. This just extends it.”

Councilors are scheduled to vote on it at their May 3 meeting.

The city agreed to return about $5.9 million in real property taxes to Wal-Mart over the course of 20 years, according to the original tax increment financing package signed with Wal-Mart in 2001. The city planned to collect another $19.8 million in real and personal property taxes over the next 20 years.

The original agreement required Wal-Mart to begin paying those taxes in April 2004, whether the construction was finished or not. The company began making those payments this year, Mitchell said. That amounts to about $1 million in revenue.

The latest changes extend those payments into 2007.

“This ensures that they continue paying this,” Mitchell said.

The company first announced the project in December 2001. Councilors approved the first phase of the project and agreed to $16.7 million in state and local financial incentives. Those included giving the company the city’s gravel mine for the new warehouse, agreeing to a 20-year tax increment financing deal, and agreeing to upgrade utility lines in the area.

Councilors rewrote the TIF deal in 2002, increasing the amount in the agreement by about $1 million. That reduced state revenue calculations and allowed Lewiston to qualify for an additional $1.3 million in state aid over 20 years.

The retailer has nearly finished building a dry goods grocery warehouse. That building should begin operation in August, Mitchell said. Work on a $45 million automated and refrigerated warehouse is under way.