About half a mile from the proposed Triumph Foods plant in East Moline, Ill., Lucille Kannenberg is afraid of the unknown.

Near her home, Triumph Foods will build its second pork-processing plant.

Ms. Kannenberg has lived in the small city near the Iowa border for the past 24 years and fears the influx of immigrants, the plant’s environmental runoff into the town’s waters and a drop in her property value — which she has read could be between 30 and 70 percent.

“As this proposed property will be a (tax increment financing) district, it will greatly affect our schools and other entities,” she said.

A TIF designation means property tax revenue goes toward paying off bonds to build the plant. Triumph has a similar designation for its pork-processing facility on Stockyards Expressway in St. Joseph.

Triumph upset community leaders in St. Joseph when it protested its 2007 property assessment.

Triumph officials appealed the Buchanan County assessment because they felt the plant hadn’t received a fair assessment on the land and real property.

The county, using Triumph’s $40 million building permit in 2005, appraised the facility at $38 million. Triumph said its pork processing plant was worth $27 million. The complaint went to the Missouri State Tax Commission.

During subsequent discussions with Triumph, the county realized they had mistakenly classified a portion of one building higher than it should be, said Scot Van Meter, county assessor. By late February, the appeal was resolved.

The county dropped its appraisal from $38 million to $35 million — leading to an assessed valuation of $11.2 million, Mr. Van Meter said. The assessed valuation is used to figure taxes.

The county faced a potentially expensive battle to resolve the appeal, including up to $50,000 for a professional appraisal.

“It would have cost a lot of taxpayer money to fight this,” he said.

Patt Lilly, Triumph’s chief administrative officer, said they accepted the county’s assessment because of the legal time and cost to appeal their “overvalued real property” was too great.

“We basically met with the county and decided to go ahead and agree to the assessment that they had come up with,” he said.

Doug Riel is a resident in East Moline who opposes the new Triumph plant, which is expected to break ground in spring 2009. He said many locals fear the company will eventually also try to lower its assessed valuation, and, therefore, their tax obligation to the local community.

“They’re going to try any way they can to get the lowest rate,” Mr. Riel said. “We personally hope (the plant construction) doesn’t happen because the impacts to our community are many.”

Ahmad Safi can be reached

at ahmadsafi@npgco.com.