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IDB is seated
Members of the newly formed Newport/Cocke County Industrial Development Board(IDB), met Tuesday in an organizational session. Jason Oury was elected chair of the body. The body plans to develop a matrix to provide incentives to firms that want to locate or expand locally. Attorney Mark Mamantov said under state law an IDB is the only way for a community to grant a tax abatement. Partnership President Lucas Graham had earlier announced there are three local firms who are interested in expanding, but they also are interested in tax abatements. Mamantov says incentives are necessary if a community is to be competitive. "If it were me, I wish that businesses wouldn't be able to extort tax incentives out of communities, with all due respect to those businesses. But the bottom line is, if you are going to compete in today's economic development climate, you almost have to abate property taxes to get any major project," he told the board. The attorney said all of the surrounding counties offer generous tax abatements, and other states offer greater incentives than does Tennessee. Some firms, said Mamantov, hire experts "that know how to really beat up on communities to extract tax incentives out of them." Cocke County Mayor Crystal Ottinger said she would like to see a generous abatement plan, offering better incentives than surrounding communities, "so we can be more competitive." Mamantov said communities can provide incentives for up to twenty years without having to obtain state approval. Graham also told the board he would like to develop incentives for luring tourism related firms, in an effort to capitalize on the community's beautiful environment. Generally communities offer incentives based on the number of hires, the level of pay offered, and some provide more incentives if the new hires are from the local community.
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