Mercer County nabbed a marketing boost Thursday when the state designated five local sites where businesses won't have to pay major state and local taxes, beginning Jan. 1.

Known as Keystone Opportunity Zones, the locations are meant to entice companies to settle there or existing businesses to expand into them.

"It means the difference for some companies of coming here or putting their expansions here or not,'' said Dennis Puko, executive director of the Mercer County Planning Commission. "It allows us to market the county to prospects.''

Sites chosen by the Department of Community and Economic Development for the latest round of Keystone Opportunity Zones complement existing sites, such as the one coveringa large industrial swath of the Broadway corridor in Farrell, Wheatland and Sharon.

"In the case of Duferco Farrell (Corp.), it placed a high reliance on state tax benefits when it decided to reopen Caparo Group's idled mill,'' Puko said.

Locations given the new status are all extensions of existing Keystone Opportunity or Keystone Opportunity Expansion zones. They are: