news-record.com

What: Guilford County commissioners meeting
When: 5:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Old County Courthouse, 301 W. Market St., Greensboro
On TV: Cable channel 13 in Greensboro and other areas of Guilford County outside High Point; cable channel 8 in High Point.
What’s going on? Commissioners will discuss a new plan to provide county money to businesses that add value to their property. Guilford County set $1.3 million aside in the 2009-10 budget while the plan was drafted, and now they’re ready to take it up before the public. Whether the money is an incentive or a tax rebate is a subject of debate among commissioners.
Want to be heard? Speakers can address the board on nonagenda items regarding county business for three minutes at the start of the meeting. A sign up sheet will be available near the lectern.
Full agenda and live video here.
What’s next? A majority of commissioners have said they support the incentive policy, but some commissioners say the discussion may continue on to another work session. Commissioners are next scheduled to meet Sept. 17.

Incentives are often a target for debate.

And an incentive plan that Guilford County Board of Commissioners Vice Chairman Steve Arnold is supporting has received plenty of attention lately.

The camps are lining up in support of or against the plan. So we'll write accordingly here to reflect opposing views.

The (incentives/tax breaks) are being offered to (small businesses/select people). This could be (groundbreaking for the state/illegal) depending upon what the final plan looks like. Last week, it appeared that the commissioners were lined up and ready to vote for this on Thursday, but the public appears to still have something to say. Nothing like this policy has been passed in the state, which some say could either increase competition for business among counties or set a precedent that may end up in the courts, depending upon who you ask.

Today we're rounding up commissioners and anyone else with expertise in the area to see what they think. The public will have a chance on Thursday to comment before commissioners. If you'd like to weigh in before then, email gerald.witt@news-record.com

Yep, props. As in what's told by the state's association of county commissioners to the Guilford County Register of Deeds office. By spending $30,000, the office saved $360,000 through the county with a cross-training program.

"I figured it up," said Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen, "We’ve gone from 33 to 27 employees by January 1 (and saved) in the salaries to the people."

The $30,000 was to cross-train remaining employees to fill other duties as needed.

"Through cross-training, I was able to move more employees to front-line responsibilities," he said.

Thigpen said that the Register of Deeds office is one of ten government offices across the state that earned the annual award from the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, which will announce the award on Aug. 28 at its annual meeting.

What: Greensboro City Council meeting

When: 5:30 p.m. today

Where: Melvin Municipal Office Building, 300 W. Washington St., Greensboro

Watch it: Time Warner Channel 13 or www.greensboro-nc.gov/citygovernment/council

How to speak: Sign up before the meeting. Speakers have up to three minutes for items not on the agenda. The speakers-from-the-floor section is limited to 30 minutes.

On the agenda: The council will consider passing a resolution that asks the U.S. Congress to address the issue of climate change.

Council members will be asked to approved a $1 million contract for environmental cleanup for the South Elm Street redevelopment project.

Council members also will be asked to approve a new $21 million incinerator for the Water Resources Department.

Council members will discuss a Guilford County tax incentive policy.
 

Steve Arnold , vice chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, said last week that he’s not connected to the sale of a building that will be used for the new High Point home of the county’s social services offices.

Wayne McDonald, who sold the property to the county, worked with Arnold and his company, Arcon. McDonald Both Arnold and Arcon are going through bankruptcy proceedings.

“We were a partner in a project called Old Eden Development, and that company has long since been closed down,”  Arnold said last week. During votes in which commissioners were choosing what to do with the new DSS facility, Arnold abstained from voting.

“I hadn’t talked with him in five, six, seven years,” Arnold said. “As I say, there’s not a relationship, and I have no interest in the building on a financial basis. We wanted to make sure that it was on the up-and-up.”

We're waiting for the bills to show up in the county's offices that will reveal how much a couple of months' worth of private attorneys will cost Guilford County.

Based on what we saw from a bit of paid research that Nexsen Pruet did in June, it's gonna be expensive.

First of all, their billable hourly rate is $275 per hour.

A lot of people in Guilford County don't make that in a day.

The cost of 20.2 hours of work, mostly conversations between an attorney and various county staff: $5,555.

We overheard a county employee close to the legal office say this week that it appears the commissioners are working quickly on hiring a new county attorney.

Of course, plenty of this cost - public funds, all of them - is linked to the sudden departure of Sharron Kurtz and the county's difficulty in keeping an attorney on staff in her absence.

The cost of a top-tier attorney could exceed $200,000, which a committee reviewed earlier this year. That same committee also said what they think of the county's operations. Listen to the mp3.

Want to know just how bad the job losses are?

Or how China helped our recession along?

How about the way that layoffs played out in the state?

Today the UNC School of Government posted several documents online that speak to those, and in somewhat plain terms. These are professors, so there is a point of entry that's required, but it's not textbook-dense stuff. And each is a pdf of roughly 10 pages or less.

Here's the conclusion of one paper:

The North Carolina economy has been deeply affected by a worldwide recession that resulted from the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Despite the historic nature of this crisis, there is strong evidence that the financial sector is healing and the job market in North Carolina is nearing recovery. Layoff s in North Carolina appear to be moderating, new home sales are starting to creep up, and there is some reason to believe that North Carolina will start creating jobs by the end of 2009.

This is fun for those types who are into economic development, particularly. Enjoy!

We learned some more about the $1.3 million plan for commercial incentives today.

Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin "Skip" Alston said that Vice Chairman Steve Arnold has plenty of support for the plan, including TREBIC, business groups around here and a majority of the commissioners.

Arnold said that he expects the plan to keep being worked on until and during the commissioners meeting in which the plan will be discussed, 5:30 p.m., Aug. 20 at the Old County Courthouse.

"Relatively speaking, I don’t think that anybody’s going to be able to take advantage of it in an illicit sense," Arnold said. He added that expansions and land purchases could qualify.

So, if a farm, which has a traditionally low property value, is sold to a small commercial business - which usually has a higher property value - then the county would allow the purchaser to have a break.

Though there are some more questions to be answered, such as how that would work for new businesses to the area. And the issue that we consider here often - oversight.

No doubt, there's math behind how the money would be spent. Basically, it sounds like the difference between new property value and the old property value would be refunded after tax payments for three years after the expansion. But how can we check that? Will there be an easy way to do so?

The plan calls for the tax director to oversee the plan and provide occasional reports to the commissioners. Otherwise, Scoopsters seem to have some questions about the idea.

We received a copy of a draft of the new economic development policy this afternoon that Board of Commissioners Vice Chairman Steve Arnold has been working on since before the county passed its budget.

There was $1.3 million held for in the 2009-10 budget for some incentives to commercial development, but that's about all we heard about the money.

Not much has been said until now, and Arnold didn't have much to say about it this afternoon because he left before we could look over the document and ask some questions.

Now that we have, there are a few things that we'd ask.

Though there are safeguards against getting county money for personal gain, what would keep someone from taking money for a business expense and spending it elsewhere? Or working the system? Have you ever known someone who had a vacation but wrote it off as a business expense?

How can we make sure that the public can get a look at who is spending the money? Sure, there's a report from the tax office to commissioners, but what about other times? When can Joe Public get to see who's getting county money?

Wouldn't the program put a little more work on an already hard-working tax department? They did have cuts like other departments in the layoff.

There are a number of self-employed among commissioners. How many could qualify for the money, and would they apply for it themselves?

That are just a few off the top of the ol' Scoop head. What would you like to know? We're going to track down Arnold on the issue tomorrow.

The Greater Greensboro Republican Women's clulb just sent this along:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

U.S. Senator Richard Burr to Headline Annual Wine and Cheese Extravaganza

Senator US Richard Burr will speak to conservatives along with Virginia Foxx (District 5) and Howard Coble (District 6) at the annual Wine and Cheese Extravaganza event, sponsored by the Greater Greensboro Republican Women’s Club, on August 23 at Starmount Forest Country Club.

The annual event draws large crowds to hear candidates and incumbents alike as well as participate in a memorable silent auction and raffle. A number of state and local candidates will also be given the floor. “It’s an event conservatives from around the area have come to appreciate not only for the fund but the forum for elected officials and candidates” said immediate past President, Dena Barnes.

Learn more at www.ggrwc.com

For more information contact Nancy Bishop, Greater Greensboro Republican Women’s Club, Phone 336 272-4440