County to discuss incentive
By Steve Herring
Published in News on November 16, 2015 1:46 PM
For the second time in as many weeks, Wayne County commissioners are scheduled to hold a public hearing on a possible incentive grant for an existing industry.
The hearing will be held Tuesday morning during the commissioners' regular meeting.
It will be the third time since August that the grant for the yet unnamed existing industry will go before commissioners. On both previous occasions, the hearing was scrapped because the company was not yet ready to proceed.
The identity of the company and the amount of the proposed incentive will not be made public until the public hearing scheduled for 9:15 a.m.
The meeting will start with an 8 a.m. agenda briefing followed by the formal session at 9 a.m. in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the county courthouse.
If approved, the grant would become the second since the board implemented the incentive grant policy in August.
The first grant, worth $7,439 per year over a five-year period for a total of $37,284, was awarded to Greensboro-based Repreve Renewables that produces bedding products for the poultry industry.
The only tax money used for the grants is what is paid in by the companies receiving them. The companies pay their property taxes, then the county would in turn repay a portion of those taxes to the company.
The grants are dependent on companies completing their project within two years once under way and creating the promised number of jobs and investment.
The grants are broken down into four levels based on the cost of a qualifying capital investment by new or expanding industries:
* Level I (65 percent): $1 million to $4,999,999.
* Level II (75 percent): $5 million to $9,999,999.
* Level III (85 percent): $10 million to $24,999,999.
* Level IV (95 percent): $25 million or more. Grants at this level may quality for additional incentives. Any additional incentives would come as a recommendation from a committee consisting of the county manager, a county commissioner, the Wayne County Development Alliance board chairman and its president.
The annual grant is calculated by multiplying the dollar amount of the investment, as determined the Wayne County Tax Department, by the current general county tax rate and then by the percentage level of the grant.
For example, using the 95 percent level on a $25 million qualifying investment the $25 million is multiplied by 66.5 percent (.00665, the current general county tax rate) to get $166,250. The $166,250 is then multiplied by 95 percent to get $157,937.50 per year times five years for a total grant of $789,687.50.