Beaufort, SC. “We Want Good Jobs”
Make sure projects lure high-paying jobs to county [Island Packet (S.C.)]
Beaufort County Council’s vote to designate Buckwalter Place a multicounty industrial park sets up the framework officials hope to use to attract higher-paying jobs to Beaufort County.That’s a laudable goal, but as with most things, there are tradeoffs in the deal. Officials will have to walk a fine line between economic development that brings better-paying jobs and subsidizing a developer by paying for projects that should be paid for by the private sector.
The agreement among Bluffton, where the 115-acre development site sits along Buckwalter Parkway, and Beaufort and Jasper counties sets up fees in lieu of property taxes on 11 parcels.
The fees, equal to what would be paid each year in property taxes, go to a special fund to be used for specific projects, such as buildings and roads, that benefit the industrial park area. The idea is to provide incentives for businesses to locate here. One of the first projects to be considered is a parking facility, according to the county’s 20-year agreement with the town of Bluffton. Bluffton and the county must agree on the scope, details and financing of any project.
The public money is spent only if there is a contractual commitment for private investment at the site, according to comments from Bluffton town manager Bill Workman in County Council meeting minutes. The designation also allows a business locating there to tap state economic incentives.
One percent of the money collected automatically goes to Jasper County, just as Beaufort County receives 1 percent of the fees in lieu of taxes collected for the multicounty industrial park that includes the Hardeeville Wal-Mart and New River Auto Mall. Taxes collected for the Beaufort County School District won’t be affected.
The concept is similar to a tax-increment financing district in that revenue is segregated and used for a specific purpose. And it operates like a TIF district in that it diverts revenue from the county’s operatingbudget.
County Councilman Steve Baer, the lone vote against the agreement on its third and final vote, points to the fact that the plan takes money away from important county services, such as parks,
libraries and law enforcement.
Now that the industrial park designation is in place, we expect county and town officials to thoroughly vet any proposed use of this money. It should not be used to benefit businesses locating there that bring the same type of service jobs already offered in Beaufort County.
The proposed projects should make the difference between a business offering high-skill, high-paying jobs locating here or going somewhere else. It should not be used to make it cheaper for Buckwalter Place to be developed.
Buckwalter Place already has enjoyed the benefits of a new Bluffton development rights bank that set up a mechanism to increase residential development at the site. That same developer
already had been paid by the county to reduce residential and commercial development on
another Buckwalter tract.
County Council Chairman Weston Newton says the council has the authority to put the diverted money back into the county’s operating fund if the council doesn’t deem infrastructure incentives worthwhile.
That’s good because the businesses and residents who will locate at Buckwalter Place in the future will be using those services Baer is worried about paying for.
The rest of us taxpayers should come out ahead, not behind, with this deal.
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, May 08, 2008
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