The City Council’s Finance Committee last week gave its backing to a 10-year tax incentive deal with an advanced manufacturing company that is expanding its local facilities.

“To me, this is a no-brainer,” Ward 2 Councilman Donald Botts said prior to the committee’s vote. “This is what the tax incentive program is for.”

Virginia-based Cadence Science Inc., whose Rhode Island facility is located at 2080 Plainfield Pike, supplies advanced products, technology and services to a range of international businesses, including those in the medical, automotive, defense and industrial fields.

Cadence currently employs 151 full-time employees, and plans to hire as many as 150 new full-timers as a result of its 34,000-square-foot addition. The project’s cost is $3.8 million.

The proposed credit through the Ten Year Industrial Tax Incentive program is based on the $35,000 additional tax bill the city estimates would result from Cadence’s expansion. The credit would allow the company to phase in that payment over a 10-year period, with the added tax bill growing by 10 percent of the total – increments of $3,500 – annually.

Brian Plummer, vice president of manufacturing for Cadence’s Rhode Island operation, said the company acquired Lincoln-based Popper and Sons Inc. in 2008 and subsequently moved the operation to Cranston. He said the company wanted to retain the local workforce, and saw Cranston as the “best logical fit” for relocation in the area.

“Cranston presented itself as a good place to do business, a place to grow,” he said.

Plummer said the local facility’s addition should be complete by October. The company will grow into the space, he said, and the plan is to bring new full-time workers – most of them manufacturing engineers – on board over time, with up to 50 added within the next two years.

“This facility provides us the ability to grow for several years,” he said.

Council members uniformly praised Cadence for its expansion.

“You’ve invested in Cranston with this expansion. It’s time that Cranston invests in you,” Council President John Lanni said.

“This is a great success story,” Ward 6 Councilman Michael Favicchio said. “This is really a great thing for the city.”

“I heard some magic words,” Ward 5 Councilman Richard Santamaria said. “I heard ‘additional,’ I heard ‘jobs’ and I heard ‘full-time.’”

“Thank you for staying in Cranston and not leaving,” Councilman Michael Farina said.

Ward 1 Councilman Steven Stycos said he was supporting a tax incentive for the first time. While saying he feels the program often lacks focus, he pointed to the Cadence project as representative of the right approach.

“If you’re going to have a tax exemption program … this is the kind of business that city money should be invested in,” he said.

Stephen Boyle, president of the Greater Cranston Chamber of Commerce, also praised Cadence and the tax incentive.

“This is the type of business that we need in the city of Cranston,” he said. “This is advanced manufacturing, and we have to look to the future.”