You know how I love these double super-secret code names for economic development projects. ‘Project Clear’ is the name Surry County commissioners came up with for an incentives package for an unidentified company that would bring 260 jobs to Elkin.
The county would purchase an existing industrial facility for $6.5 million and lease it back to said unidentified company for $1 per year for 12 years. Commission chairman Paul Johnson emphasized that the county would only be paying $4 million for the building, since the incentives agreement included a $2 million loan assistance payback from the unidentified company.
Right now, funds to purchase the building will come from the general fund, although the county is applying for grants from the Department of Commerce and the Golden LEAF Foundation.
Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. A couple of interesting comments during discussion and debate:
At the meeting when the county held a public hearing about the deposit, Billy Slate of Mount Airy said, “First of all, I’m kind of confused about what the job of the Surry County board is. I didn’t know we’re in the real estate business.”
….Commissioner Eddie Harris said then that although he doesn’t like incentives either, “There’s no other way.”
Commissioner Garry Scearce told Slate that one of the ways to keep taxes from going up is to increase the tax base by bringing in big companies.
Yes there is another way to keep everybody’s taxes from going up —-government should stay out of the real estate business.
