Congress recently approved an extension to the Gulf Opportunity Zone for several counties in Mississippi, but Adams County did not make the list.

Among other things, the GO Zone, signed into law in 2005, provides federal tax incentives to areas affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and Adams County was covered.

The original end date commercial businesses could take advantage of the tax incentives for building was Dec. 31, 2008.

Recent legislation extends the date to benefit from bonus depreciation to 2010.

Adams County wasn’t part of the five counties because it didn’t sustain significant damage from the storms, County Attorney Bob Latham said Tuesday.

“Adams County didn’t qualify because they were just targeting the most distressed areas, primarily those on the gulf coast,” Latham said.

Because of the extent of the damage in gulf coast counties and parishes, the area needed more time to clean up and entice business, he said.

“Some had some major damage,” Latham said. “It was so extensive, it would just take so much longer to clean up the property before they could start building,” he said about the rationale for extending the timeframe.

Adams County didn’t sustain nearly the amount of damage, so although it was included in the original GO Zone plan, it wasn’t covered in the new extension.

“When you think about it, there really wasn’t anything to clean up in Adams County,” Latham said. “A business could have come in and built shortly after the storm, whereas on the coast, they’re still cleaning up.”

Latham said being left out of the extension counties did not hurt the county, and businesses still had time to take advantage of the incentives the plan offered.

“The GO Zone legislation is still in effect for Adams County as far as the original provisions,” Latham said. “It will provide tax incentives for people who put their construction projects into service up until Jan. 1 2009.”