Whitefish label plant asks for tax break

Total Label USA, a label manufacturing business northwest of Whitefish, is asking Flathead County for a tax break on $1.37 million worth of new equipment and improvements to the plant.

The county’s tax incentive, aimed at encouraging business investment, taxes the added value at 50 percent for the first five years. In the sixth year the business pays 60 percent of its tax liability, then continues the phased plan until it pays 100 percent in the 10th year.

Total Label USA has successfully used the county’s tax incentive several times through the years as the company has grown. The label company started in Tennessee as Resource Label Group and expanded to rural Whitefish in 2004. Its name was later changed to Total Label USA.

The county commissioners will hold a public hearing on the tax-reduction request at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, May 1, in the commissioner chambers on the third floor of the county courthouse in Kalispell.