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Incentives, efficiency and news of the day

Pay no mind to that spate of cool weather outside, because there are two things heating up in county business today: incentives and efficiency.

This guest editorial from Guilford County's former head of economic development, Rob Bencini, may wind up in the dead center of a discussion on a new economic incentive plan that county commissioners will review this afternoon.

There's widespread support among commissioners to pass the plan, though the legality of it has been called into question. A previous draft allows a business to receive tax money for adding property value to its business, but had no requirement for jobs. Supporters call it an incentive for growth. Opponents call it a tax rebate.

And while local economic developers appear to support the idea along with commissioners and others, there have been some voices of dissent from the blogosphere and elsewhere.

Late yesterday the county sent us the most updated draft of the proposed policy, which is more specific on what types of property can and can't receive county money, and sets a minimum $10,000 investment requirement. We still need to read down the rest of the new draft.

Meanwhile, this story caused Commissioner Carolyn Coleman to give us a call this morning.

She said that she met with Mike Perdue from the Greensboro Coliseum and a representative from Siemens last year about efficiency, but felt that a meeting with someone from just one company was suspect.

"Anytime that happens, it seems to me, that you're pushing somebody," she said.

Later, as her efficiency committee kicked off, she said that A&T came into the conversation as a result of a conversation with one of her neighbors, who works with the Center for Energy Research and Technology. As a note, the county never paid any money to A&T for their audit.

Preliminary audits from companies seeking a performance contract don't cost money either, but those companies do take a fee out for their services once the work of installing equipment is done.

Coleman, for her part, said she doesn't see the difference between the two methods, and that she didn't stop the process on finding an outside firm to do the work.

"What is the difference? If A&T does it for no charge and a company was going to make money doing it, I don’t see the big difference there. It’s a matter of going in one direction or another," she said.

"And what is implicating me in something that I don’t know anything about?" she said. "This is over my my head."

We attempted to contact County Manager Brenda Jones Fox on the matter, but she has not returned phone messages.