A new tax increment financing policy will provide additional incentives for industrial development and business recruitment wanting to locate in Overton County.
Industrial Development Authority Executive Director Shannon Cantrell said the policy change, along with the Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) program serve as a way to entice big business into the area.
“The TIF policy tax increment financing that actually helps us to increase our tax base,” Cantrell said. “So the two of them together allow for us to just be more attractive to larger developments wanting to come into the area.”
Cantrell said the policy allows for the increase in property taxes generated by a development to be refunded to the developer after they have improved the property. Cantrell said the eligible expenses include public infrastructure such as roads, water and sewer improvements, utilities, site preparation and storm water management.
“They pay their taxes up front and then once they provide all of the information needed receipts whatever to the tax assessor that amount can be refunded back to them,” Cantrell said
Cantrell said the incentives will be handled on a project-by-project basis rather than being a blanket approval for all applicants. Cantrell said developers must provide the Industrial Development Authority with an economic impact plan for review.
“If somebody does come into the community and decide they want to do a development that’s really going to make a difference they have to provide the industrial development authority with an economic impact plan and if we don’t feel like that plan is strong enough to offer this incentive then between us and the commission we don’t have to do it,” Cantrell said.
County Attorney Lillie Ann Sells said final approval for all tax incentives offered to new businesses must still go through the commission.
“If one of these data centers applied to come into Overton County it would come before the commission,” Sells said. “So that would be y’all’s decision if you wanted to not have them to pay taxes. But what generally happens as you all know they’ll offer like 100 jobs in Overton County but ‘we’re not going to pay taxes’ and it’s a data center. So the county commission would vote on that and decide.”
Cantrell said the policy differs from the existing PILOT agreements, which focus primarily on job creation through a 10-year property tax step-down. Cantrell said the TIF policy specifically targets the reimbursement of actual property costs related to the portion of the land where public infrastructure is built.
“Now the only kind of reimbursement that they can get on actual property costs is a portion of the property that the public infrastructure is actually built on,” Cantrell said. “So it’s not the whole property purchase. It’s just a percentage that the public infrastructure is on.”
The commission also approved several appointments to the Industrial Development Authority board of directors as part of the resolution. These include two-year terms for Wanda Krantz and Jim Evans, four-year terms for Wes Burnett and Jerry Garrett, and six-year terms for Shannon Cantrell, Clint Melton, and James Scarlett. The local chamber director and tax assessor will also serve as ex-officio, non-voting members.