Incentives for industries could include free land
Craig McDaniel and economic development officials say it’s time to look at new ways to attract manufacturers.
Economic development officials say it’s time to look at new ways to attract manufacturers.
Rome City Commissioner Craig McDaniel was heavily involved in economic development efforts before he retired as president of Georgia Northwestern Technical College, operating then as Coosa Valley Technical College.
He’s one of several local officials saying more incentives are needed to attract new industries to the county following a dry spell of more than a decade.
“I think we have to have a very focused, aggressive effort about bringing manufacturing jobs here,” McDaniel said.
So many other communities are giving away land, he said, and Rome and Floyd County ought to at least discuss what kind of trade-off would be acceptable in exchange for free land.
Floyd County Commission Chairman Larry Maxey said he is willing to talk about offering acreage to the right entity.
“If we can see where it would benefit the county in the long run, and bring new jobs in here, yeah,” Maxey said. “Every town is in the same situation. It’s a new game.”
Rome City Manager Sammy Rich said competition for industry is extremely tough, with some communities offering not only land but cash incentives.
“It’s kind of getting to the point of ludicrous in some cases,” Rich said. “Nonetheless, if a company makes the right investment in Rome and Floyd County, I think we would be crazy not to consider every available incentive.”
The county is grading its 100-acre industrial tract at Ga. 53 and 140 in hopes a ready-to-build site will be more attractive. Contractors are leveling a 65-acre pad that offers access to a Norfolk Southern rail line and is less than 10 miles off Interstate 75.
Maxey said they originally thought to wait for an industrial prospect to target the property so it could be graded to their specifications, but there have been no takers.
“I think we’ve really got something to show now. We needed something that was marketable,” he said.
The 2013 special purpose local option sales tax package includes $8 million to put together a portfolio of “shovelready” sites for industrial development — and some of that money could be used to buy more land.
“We’re constantly looking for at least 100-acre tracts,” Maxey said.
McDaniel said building a facility on speculation also could be beneficial, although there is no guarantee. Polk County has a building of nearly 100,000 square feet that has not been occupied for several years.
As head of the region’s largest technical college, McDaniel was privy to discussions leading up to a number of major economic development deals.
He noted that Rome hasn’t had a major manufacturing announcement in over a decade, since the Big Four — Suzuki,
Neaton Rome, Pirelli and F&P Georgia — decided they would build plants in Floyd County.
Announcements in recent years have been expansions adding few jobs or new companies with less-lucrative pay scales than offered for skilled trades.
Ball Container announced a $50 million expansion earlier this year, which will add 40 jobs.
Transdev and SYKES Enterprises are opening national customer service centers that are together projected to employ between 500 and 700 people. And Lowe’s Regional Distribution Center in the North Floyd Industrial Park off Ga. 140 has added close to 200 more jobs than the 600 originally promised.
Officials have been discussing the creation of an incentive packet to lure retailers, in addition to the incentives offered to manufacturers.
However, McDaniel said his experience indicates that retail growth follows manufacturing jobs into a community.
“And it will follow it out,” he said. “The retail dollars are not there, the discretionary money is not there.”
This year, sales tax revenue has been lower every month as compared to a year ago. Through the end of July, collections are down 5.7 percent.
He said the need to bring higher-paying manufacturing jobs to Rome also may affect the health care industry, which is the backbone of Rome’s employment sector.
“They are not going to add people in an environment where you don’t have more payers,” McDaniel said.
There’s also a concern that the current mix of major employers doesn’t translate into operating revenue for local governments and schools.
When the Rome City Commission raised the property tax levy earlier this summer, commissioners pointed a lack of expansion in the industrial base as part of the reason.
An examination of the top 10 employers and top
10 property tax sources for Floyd County includes just one common name, Berry College — and much of that is attributable to Berry’s vast timber holdings.
Floyd Medical Center runs the largest operation, with 2,800 employees, according to 2015 data from the Georgia Department of Labor and Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce.
Redmond Regional Medical Center, with 1,200 employees, and Harbin Clinic with 950 also make the list.
In the government sector, Floyd County Schools employs 1,481, the county government has 1,320 workers, the city of Rome has 624 and the city schools have 750.
In the business sector, Lowe’s has 823 workers and Kellogg employs 575.
Berry rounds out the list with 571 employees — and clocks in with property assessed at $45.5 million.
Other entities on the top-10 taxpayer list, and the assessed value of their property, according to the Floyd County Tax Office are:
Georgia Power, $218.3 million
Oglethorpe Power, $103.4 million
Crown Pine Timber (International Paper), $69.2 million
Ball Container, $27.8 million
Norfolk Southern, $21.4 million
F&P Georgia, $20.7 million
Profile Extrusion, $20.3 million
Duke Realty Limited, $18.4 million
Wal-Mart Real Estate, $12.2 million