SCDA Signs Inducement Resolution

The Stephens County Development Authority signs a resolution that it hopes will help a company make a decision about moving to the area.

At its monthly meeting last Thursday, the Stephens County Development Authority unanimously approved an inducement resolution for an unnamed potential business project code named “Project Hummingbird.”

Stephens County Development Authority Executive Director Tim Martin said an inducement resolution costs the county nothing and is just used as a recruitment tool for potential businesses by allowing them to take advantage of certain benefits if they locate in the community.

“Inducement resolutions are designed to afford companies, should they decide to locate in a community, the opportunity to count the expenditures that they incur on that project into their bond financing,” said Martin. “There are no obligations to the community or the company. It is just a tool that communities use.”

Martin said an inducement resolution can also provide tax-related benefits for a company that has one in place if it moves into a community.

“The IRS recognizes certain expenditures for certain purposes if an inducement resolution is in place,” said Martin. “The inducement resolution starts the clock, if you will, for those expenditures.”

Martin said that the Development Authority has passed similar inducement resolutions in the past for companies that are looking at Stephens County as a possible location.

Most recently, the Development Authority approved one in December for an unnamed business project code named “Project Sark.”

In other news from last week’s Development Authority meeting, the Authority voted unanimously to donate a piece of Development Authority in the Meadowbrook Industrial Park located next to ASI Plastics that ASI needs for its ongoing expansion.

Martin said the extra land was needed for a detention pond that needs to be built as part of ASI’s, formerly GEM Industries’, expansion.