PROVO — The Provo School Board agreed this week to help fund infrastructure expansion at the Provo Airport in order to attract a national aviation company.

Both the school board and the city are staying pretty mum about the project — neither entity is ready to release the name of the aviation company or even preliminary cost estimates. But one thing is for sure, Provo School District won't be collecting its share of the business's property taxes — which amounts to approximately $170,000 annually — for up to 20 years.

School board members say they aren't giving up money, but they're making an investment.

"We get roughly one-third of our funding from corporate taxes, so — whether we like it or not — we're linked to economic development," said Provo School District Superintendant Randall Merrill. "If the city decays and businesses don't want to come here, property tax suffers, and so does the school system."

Dipping into property tax profits, said Provo spokeswoman Helen Anderson, enables the city to lure a company to the area that wouldn't otherwise be interested. The company promises to bring some 600 jobs to Utah County.

In the short term, the deal doesn't do much for Provo School District. But that will change once the company is rooted and the schools start collecting property tax money again.

"The end game for the board is we will pick up more tax dollars because the property is converting from public to private," Merrill said.

Board members hope supporting the project will bring in more than just extra tax revenue 20 years down the road. Merrill said he believes the business will provide more opportunities for students to get technical training and internships.

"We believe this project has merit and deserves government support," he said. "The partnership possibilities with local schools are going to be huge."

This is the second redevelopment project Provo School District has agreed to fund since 2006, when the Legislature passed a law requiring the city to seek schools' approval before giving property tax incentives to developers. The first was a $38 million Zions Bank tower in downtown Provo.

Neither decision to give up precious education funding was easy, board members said.

"This situation brings us into a position where we are responsible to look out, not only for the school district's needs, but also the city's," said board member Sue Curtis. "If we only looked at the situation through the eyes of what's best for the school, we'd be doing the community a disservice."

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