news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Some county commissioners dismissed claims this week from a former Guilford County economic development chief who called their draft economic incentive plan illegal. “It’s sour grapes,” Commissioner Linda Shaw said in response to a statement from Rob Bencini, the county’s recently laid-off economic and community development director.

“We did away with that department and saved a lot of money by doing so,” Shaw said.

In a meeting Thursday, commissioners tabled discussion on a policy connected to $1.3 million in the 2009-10 county budget that would give tax money to smaller business that add at least $10,000 in taxable property.

After a business expansion, the county would give back to that company the difference between the property tax bill before the investment and the property tax bill after the investment, which would be paid for three years.

Bencini wrote a column in Thursday’s News & Record that called the policy illegal and said that it favors developers. Bencini’s department and his job were eliminated by County Manager Brenda Jones Fox this year, but he said his stance isn’t “sour grapes.”

“This is not a strike at the commissioners for the hell of it, this is about the business of the proposed policy,” Bencini said. The county’s current plan, which Bencini said he drafted, includes stipulations for job growth and should be enough.

“The policy they have supports high-wage jobs,” he said, “and it raises the income level and the per-capita income of the community.” Supporters say it allows small firms to receive benefits for expanding.

Commissioners Vice Chairman Steve Arnold has said that a majority of commissioners support the plan.

“What I’m trying to do, and have done from the beginning, is craft a policy with the input from all the commissioners,” Arnold said.

Opponents say the policy does not require any job creation and appears to be a tax break for specific groups.

“Your taxes, within reason, have to be uniform,” former state Supreme Court Justice Robert Orr said Thursday by phone after the meeting. “You can’t just put a tax on one person or one company, nor can you give one company a tax break.”

Commissioners Chairman Melvin “Skip” Alston said that he’d listen to county attorneys before an opinion from Bencini.
 

Staff writer Donald W. Patterson contributed.
 

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com