{"id":37219,"date":"2026-05-29T12:18:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T16:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=37219"},"modified":"2026-05-29T12:18:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T16:18:30","slug":"decatur-council-suspends-champion-abatements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/decatur-council-suspends-champion-abatements\/","title":{"rendered":"Decatur council suspends Champion abatements"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tax abatements granted Champion Homes in Decatur three years ago have been suspended for one year by city council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Champion&#8217;s CF-1 form \u2013 which shows how a company has lived up to what it projected in order to receive the abatements \u2013 was reviewed by council at its May 19 meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Champion, when granted 10-year abatements on real estate and personal property in June of 2023, estimated it would have 232 employees when it reached full production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Its new CF-1 form, however, revealed that it currently has 136 workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The S. 13<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0St. company had been asked by the city to have a representative on hand for the May 19 meeting, but it failed to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"438\" height=\"235\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Champion-Homes-sign.jpg?resize=438%2C235&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-37220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Champion-Homes-sign.jpg?w=438&amp;ssl=1 438w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Champion-Homes-sign.jpg?resize=300%2C161&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 438px) 100vw, 438px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey seem to be constantly hiring, so I guess I would want to grant them some grace,\u201d Councilman Matt Dyer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was noted that the CF-1 formed had been submitted just before the deadline to do so and no representative attended the council meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So after some further discussion, Dyer moved and Councilwoman Jenny Shultz-Bowers seconded, council suspended the tax abatements for one year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Champion will be able to refile for the abatements next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2023 START: Champion Homes began production in the former All American Homes plant on S. 13th St. early in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Approximately 100 people were working at the plant at the time, but council was given the estimate that employment would eventually reach 232.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Champion would be investing almost $8.5 million in real estate and just over $20 million in personal property, its plant manager told city council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tax breaks are provided on a sliding scale, with no taxes paid the first year, then 10% of the tax bill is paid the second year, 20% on the third year and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A CF-1 form, or Compliance with Statement of Benefits, is an Indiana tax form used by companies to annually report their progress in meeting investment and job creation goals to maintain tax abatements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It compares actual project results against the estimates provided in the original SB-1 form and must be filed between January 1 and May 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Tax abatements granted Champion Homes in Decatur three years ago have been suspended for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-37219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Champion-Homes-sign.jpg?fit=438%2C235&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37221,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37219\/revisions\/37221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}