Officials hear about HON at roundtable
Officials from around Polk County and representatives from local manufacturers gathered for the first quarterly roundtable to hear about not only what one local industry produces on a daily basis and incentives hiring that could only be in place this year.
The roundtable was held Thursday at The HON Company in Cedartown with Brad Hufford leading the discussion off with information about HON’s history in Cedartown and what they produce locally.
Hufford said the company, which currently employs more than 600 people to work in the 550,000 square foot manufacturing facility, has made their business in Cedartown off of both producing a variety of office furniture and being a main point of distribution for the company.
“From a commercial standpoint, we’re stable but we change what we produce based on the need of our customers,” he said.
That has translated to $85 million made at the Polk County facility on an annual basis, which also benefits local workers in that they also share in the profits of HON with dividends paid out annually to those who invest in the company.
Though HON hasn’t made any official plans to expand, Hufford said recent changes in national policy over import taxes could significantly im- pact their manufacturing process, forcing the company to bring in more parts production in house instead of purchasing from other firms overseas.
That could translate to expansions, which HON and others are well positioned to take part in this year with a change to the change to Polk County’s tier status for the state’s Job Tax Credit Program.
Business owners large and small can take advantage of tax credits after creating two or more jobs after Polk County was placed on Tier 1 status for the program this year. The list changes annually based on several factors, including unemployment and poverty rates in a county.
Under the program, for every two or more jobs that a business that has been operating in the state for three years or more creates, they can take a $3,500 write-off on their state income taxes for each job. Once in- come taxes have been settled if the deductions are more than the bill, the money is then applied to state withholding taxes for employers.
Stephanie Scearce, the regional project manager for the Georgia Department of Economic Development, talked about this and other programs that the state offers manufacturers looking for tax credits an exemptions. Those include not having to pay state income taxes on utilities, and programs that allow companies to write off costs for retraining employees so long as the Technical College System of Georgia approves of the education being provided by t he company, either through a technical college classroom or a company-provided program on the job.
Scearce said hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of incentives were available in this program in particular, but it only applies to those who are full time employees.
She said those employers looking to take advantage of programs should contact her office at the Georgia Department of Economic Development, which can be found at Georgia.org.