Corporate Welfare Weekly - September 11, 2009 – Issue 15

Recent Announcements…

 

$250,000 to Caye Home Furnishings from the One North Carolina Fund. The company is an international manufacturer of custom home furniture and will open a new plant in Taylorsville.

            ~Governor Bev Perdue. Press Release September 10, 2009

 

$220,000 to TurboCare, Inc. from the One North Carolina Fund. The company produces and repairs turbine blades for gas and steam turbines. TurboCare will also receive $100,000 in local incentives from Forsyth County.

            ~ Craver, Richard. Winston-Salem Journal September 9, 2009

 

$100,000 in loans from the City of Greensboro has been granted to developer Jim Marshall, president of LindBrook Development Services, to begin construction of a five-story building dubbed “project 324 South Elm.” The city has agreed to forgive the loan once certain conditions have been met.

            ~ Patterson, Donald W. News & Record September 9, 2009  

 

$277,500 in local economic incentives is being sought by Ameritox, a firm that processes medical tests and monitors the use of pain medications. Guilford County commissioners will review the request for incentives during a September 17^th hearing. Ameritox could also receive additional benefits from the county if the commissioners approve the county’s disputed $1.3 million incentive plan.

            ~ Barron, Richard M. & Witt, Gerald. News & Record September 8, 2009

 

Quote of the week…

 

“The proposal violates the basic tenet of taxation in North Carolina: Except under very precise limitations (like returning tax overpayments), rebating taxes in North Carolina is illegal. Specifically, N.C. General Statute 105380 calls for ‘No taxes to be released, refunded, or compromised.’ It adds: ‘The governing body of a taxing unit is prohibited from releasing, refunding, or compromising all or any portion of the taxes levied against any property within its jurisdiction.’…

 

“…One or 11 Guilford County commissioners supporting the proposed policy just doesn’t matter and makes it no more legal. Yet, Arnold persists in this quixotic quest to arbitrarily reduce taxes for developers.”

 

~ Rob Bencini, former Guilford County’s economic development director, wrote a piece in Greensboro’s News & Record about the $1.3 million tax rebate policy introduced by Guilford County commissioners Vice Chairman Steve Arnold. The legality of the policy is being debated.

 

Tidbit…

 

If you have been following the battle over the $1.3 million incentives plan in Guilford County, you may want to take note of these important announcements:

 

·       A public work session will be held by Guilford County Commissioners on September 16 at 3 p.m. to discuss the plan.

 

·       A public hearing will be held on September 17 at 5:30 p.m. in the Old County Courthouse

 

~ Witt, Gerald. News & Record September 10, 2009

 

A Disastrous Tidbit…

 

Randy Parton Theater is still causing problems for Roanoke Rapids City

 

In its September magazine, Business North Carolina printed an article written by Jerry Allegood that explains the quagmire that resulted from Roanoke Rapids City’s deal with businessman Rick Watson, then president and CEO of Northeastern North Carolina Regional Economic Development Commission. Mr. Watson, dubbed by Allegood as “the music man” because of the similarities between Watson and a character named Professor Harold Hill from the movie The Music Man, (hence the feature picture of this week’s issue of Corporate Welfare Weekly).

 

As the story goes, Watson “sold the notion of a 1,500-seat theater, which he said would kick-start an entertainment district that would transform the fading mill town into another Branson, MO. Build a theater showcasing entertainer Randy Parton, younger brother of Dolly Parton, and the community will prosper, he told officials. They bought it, to the tune of $21.5 million that Roanoke Rapids borrowed for construction.”

 

“The Randy Parton Theater operated only about a year before shutting down in July 2008 because of paltry attendance. By then, Parton was long gone, having been fired in December 2007”…the building has been “difficult to sell and costly to keep – and is the subject of ridicule. In March, the city signed a deal with Chicago funeral-home owner Lafayette Gatling, who took over the theater in a $12.5 million lease-purchase agreement.”

 

Unfortunately…“Roanoke Rapids is stuck with the rest of the debt, which it will be paying for 20 years.”

 

~ Allegood, Jerry. “Some Give and Take.” Business North Carolina Sept. 2009: 44-49

 

Around the Country…

 

WBAY, Green Bay, Wisconsin’s ABC affiliate, reports on the large incentives package granted to Mercury Marine in article written by Jason Zimmerman. Portions of the article have been quoted below:

 

Fond du Lac City Council Unanimous on Mercury Marine Incentives

 

“It was a unanimous vote by the Fond du Lac City Council Thursday night as it approved $3 million to help keep Mercury Marine in town. The city’s incentive package is just another piece of the effort to keep Fond du Lac’s largest employer. Last week the union agreed to wage and benefit concessions and Wednesday night the county board approved a $50 million incentive package – and with it, a new, half-percent county sales tax...”

 

 “…Most of the Money will be used to purchase 21 acres of land near Hickory Street and Rolling Meadows Drive, just outside Mercury Marine’s plant, that the city hopes to develop. The rest of the money will be given out as a non-payable loan…”

 

“…The money won’t come from the county’s sales tax; it will have to come from somewhere in the city’s budget.”

 

~ Zimmerman, Jason. WBAY Green Bay, WI. September 10, 2009