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.