State making sure there’s public money for the Publix good

Frank Cerabino

Good news, Floridians. Publix is here to stay! I know, I know. You probably weren’t worried about losing Publix because, well, there are 773 Publix supermarkets in Florida.

And a few street corners and strip mall locations are still available. But just because the chain was founded in Florida in 1930, and 68 percent of its stores are in Florida, that’s no guarantee that the supermarket chain won’t just bolt and move its headquarters to, say, Bugtussle, Alabama, or some other desirable locale.

We had to do something — like give this big, profitable supermarket chain millions of dollars in public money.

At least that’s the thinking here. We call it “Project Suede.” Seriously. That’s the code words the state of Florida uses to describe the plan to give Publix $3.5 million of tax refunds over the next 10 years. Project Suede.

We get all James Bond over these handouts because we want to keep it on the downlow so that other states don’t try to throw more money at these businesses. So there’s an aura of secrecy, even from the public.

“I think the taxpayers who are funding these deals deserve to be told upfront what the deals are and what the incentives and the jobs promises are,” said Ben Wilcox, research director at Integrity Florida, a nonpartisan government watchdog. Taxpayers, shmaxpayers. “Project Suede” was sussed out by The Lakeland Ledger newspaper, which reported that the expansion of Publix’s headquarters in Lakeland was going to be partially financed by the state’s Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund Program as well as an additional $700,000 in local incentives.

As part of the deal, Publix will make a $28 million expansion and eventually add 700 more jobs that pay a minimum of about $44,000 a year.

The Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund Program, run by the state’s business development arm, Enterprise Florida, was created by the state Legislature as a way to encourage out-of-state businesses to come to Florida and existing Florida businesses not to move to other states.

“The Legislature finds that retaining and expanding existing businesses in the state, encouraging the creation of