ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Two Belmont County businesses continue to benefit from tax abatements approved by the board of commissioners.

At a commission meeting Wednesday, Commissioner J.P. Dutton made a motion to adopt a resolution accepting the Tax Incentive Review Council’s recommendation to approve abatements for Muxie Distributing Co. and Hill International for the 2025 tax year.

According to Merriam Webster, an abatement is a deduction from the full amount of taxes owed. Abatements are commonly used to attract businesses to locate or expand operations in a particular area.

Muxie Distributing Co. has received a property tax abatement since 2016 with the incentive scheduled to end in 2026. Hill International has received its abatement since 2020 in an agreement that will end in 2030.

The Tax Incentive Review Council consists of the Belmont County commissioners, auditor and port authority director.

It meets once a year to discuss and review each tax incentive package that has been either completed, in progress or is pending.

“They’re both (Muxie and Hill International) fantastic projects, and we are very proud that they are part of this community and happy to see this package continue on for this next year,” Dutton said.

Commissioner Jerry Echemann added that both incentive programs were for 10-year terms.

The Tax Incentive Review Council meets to ensure that these companies are living up to the terms of their original agreement.

“These companies have to report every year, and they report how many people they have employed, and so there’s a group of township trustees, school superintendents of school districts, and the county that meet to oversee that’s called the Tax Incentive Review Council,” Belmont County Port Authority Executive Director Larry Merry said. “Both of these companies have far exceeded the agreements that they agreed to, to create jobs and what their investment was. All the commissioners were doing was accepting those recommendations.”

Merry added that the agreement between the county and both Muxie Distributing Co. and Hill International guarantees the businesses get 60% off of their real estate tax bills for 10 years.

“Those companies have done an outstanding job of meeting the requirements of the agreement,” he said.

One of the requirements to receive the abatement was the promise of hiring more employees.

Hill International stated that it had 34 employees in West Virginia and would be bringing all 34 over to Ohio with the business. As of 2024, Hill International has hired an additional eight employees, bringing its total to 42 employees.

Muxie Distributing Co. said it would hire three new full-time employees and four new part-time employees, which it exceeded by hiring 12 new employees.

Another requirement of the companies was that they had to invest in development in the county. That means they needed to construct a facility for their business inside Belmont County, a requirement that both have fulfilled.

The county officials said they did not know offhand Friday how much money the agreements save the businesses annually or over the course of the 10-year term.