By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

Governor Reynolds is calling the legislature back to Des Moines for a special session on Friday, to vote on new incentives for a proposed steel mill in southeast Iowa.

“This is a transformational opportunity,” Reynolds said Monday.

Reynolds was among a handful of Iowa elected officials who were in the Oval Office with President Trump on Monday afternoon to reveal the deal. Reynolds indicated she had engaged in “tough negotiations” with the company that plans to build the plant. “It has been incredible synergy working together on this project,” Reynolds said.

Today, in a news release, Reynolds said the State of Iowa has a “memorandum of understanding” outlining the terms of “a partnership” with Mesabi Metallics and the legislature will be asked to make to “reasonable and limited updates” to an already existing state economic development program. The “Major Economic Growth Attraction” or MEGA program currently provides rebates for sales taxes on construction materials, the company gets tax credits for each full-time worker hired once the plant opens and a refundable tax credit worth 5% of a company’s investment in the facility. That would equal $750 million on the proposed $15 billion project under current program rules. While she was at the White House, Reynolds said a program called “Source Iowa” will be launched at the end of the week, too.

“We want to make sure that Iowa businesses that are located in the state have the opportunity to partner with Mesabi Metallics,” Reynolds said.

The governor’s proclamation calls on the legislature to convene at 8:30 a.m. on Friday. Mesabi Metallics is a subsidiary of a family-owned business based in India. It has recently opened in iron ore mine and processing plant in northern Minnesota that would supply the raw material for the plant in southeast Iowa.