Fram says local economy trending in right direction
Payroll expansion isn’t happening en masse, but the area’s economic developer said last week that local businesses are making investments that bode well for high-skilled, high-wage job growth.
Jim Fram, president/CEO of the Hot Springs Metro Partnership and The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce, told justices of the peace last Monday that recent capital outlays are a harbinger of good jobs.
“Local companies are not adding a whole lot of jobs,” Fram told the Garland County Quorum Court Finance Committee. “But we have a lot of companies that are investing in equipment and remodels. All of that in my experience is a real good sign of the direction things are headed.
“Some of the jobs being created tend to have a little higher wage. I’d rather have fewer jobs with higher wages and better benefits than a truckload of them that don’t pay enough for somebody to make a living off of them.”
Fram told the committee that the recent reopening of the Caddo River Forest Products lumber mill in Glenwood is an example of high-skill, high-wage jobs coming to the area. Hot Springs and Garland County contract the Metro Partnership for economic development services, but Fram said the Arkansas Economic Development Commission asked the nonprofit corporation to help facilitate the Glenwood project.
“Glenwood does not have a full-time economic developer,” he said. “It’s not in Hot Springs, and it’s not in Garland County. But I promise you when they
have 200 people working in that mill there’s going to be a bunch of them that live in Garland County and commute back and forth, because those are pretty high-paying, skilled jobs.”
Fram told the committee the Metro Partnership has seven active projects — three in manufacturing, three in aerospace and one in food processing. Nondisclosure agreements preclude him from providing specifics, but he said they include the tax abatements the quorum court endorsed last month for Triumph Airborne Structures.
Its $400,000 investment in new equipment related to the relocation of 10 jobs from its Oakdale, Pa., facility qualified it for the incentives, including a rebate on county and state sales taxes related to the capital investment and a state income tax credit based on the payroll expansion.
Fram told the committee he didn’t think businesses vying for one of the five licenses the state will issue for medical marijuana cultivation qualify for incentives the state provides through the Consolidated Incentive Act of 2003. The state is expected to begin accepting applications for cultivation and dispensary licenses next month.
The owners of Win-Choice USA, a window manufacturer and retailer, have said they are interested in bringing a cultivation enterprise to the site of the former Weyerhaeuser lumber mill they purchased last month in Mountain Pine. They have contracted with a Colorado-based firm to help them secure a license. Proposed rules drafted by the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission indicate the state will award licenses based on merit and not a lottery system as originally planned.
Fram said the former Weyerhaeuser site is one of the few places in the county suitable for a cultivation facility, noting that cultivators have shown a lot of interest in Pine Bluff.
“Pine Bluff has had 26 inquiries about marijuana growing in its industrial area,” he told the committee. “We haven’t had that many, because we don’t have the industrial space that’s essential to that, other than the Mountain Pine space.”
The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment of 2016, or Amendment 98, makes the regulated medical use of marijuana legal under state law. The legislation enacting the citizen-initiated amendment takes effect July 1.
Finance Committee Chairman Matt McKee, District 9 JP, told the committee cultivators don’t need incentives given the revenue they are expected to generate.
“I wouldn’t be in favor of any incentives for marijuana-grow operations,” he said. “They’re going to be making money hand over fist.”
Fram said he and his staff are working with a large employer competing for a product line with an out-of-state location owned by the same company. The outcome will be consequential to the area’s economy, he said.
“The community that gets the new product line is going to add some capital investment and add some jobs,” he told the committee. “The community that doesn’t is probably going to lose a significant amount of jobs.
“I can’t mention the name of the company, but I’m going to meet with (County Judge Rick Davis) and (Sheriff Mike McCormick) to look at some things we can do to help make the location more competitive.”
The committee approved the Metro Partnership’s May funding. It’s released $31,250 of the
$75,000 the county appropriated for its contract for services with the group. The county withheld
$51,333 in 2016 funding, transferring the money to the county General Fund amid questions about the organization’s advocacy of county interests.
The county chose not to contract with the Metro Partnership in 2015. The city has a $100,000 contract for services with the organization.