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Jefferson County is considering tax incentives to encourage a retail development that would include a Publix Supermarket in Kimberly.
“The reason we are looking at this particular project is that part of the county really doesn’t have anything in the way of grocery store options,” county Economic Development Adviser Jeff Traywick said Tuesday during the commission’s committee meeting. “It fills a big gap in the area. But it also puts a lot of new retail investment in close proximity to the Farm Center, which is in development just outside Warrior.”
The project is said to create 67 new jobs with an average wage of $16.64 an hour. The return on investment would be about $1.8 million in general fund revenue and about $3.8 million in educational revenue over a 10-year period.
County officials are considering an agreement with Blackwater Real Estate Kimberly, LLC, that, as initially proposed, would give the developer a 1% retail sales tax rebate, to be capped at $1 million or a 5-year term, whichever is less.
But that funding source could be changed before the matter goes to the commission for its official consideration during a meeting Thursday.
Commission President Jimmie Stephens was taken aback during Tuesday’s committee meeting when the project presentation included use of the county’s sales tax.
“One of those is the 1-cent school tax, which is obligated,” Stephens said. “Our general sales tax — which they stated that this was going to be drawn from — is obligated to indigent care … and the BJCC. We only receive about a third of our general sales tax.”
Stephens and Lashunda Scales met with county staffers who explained that the plan was to reimburse the general sales tax beyond the period of the development. The staffers cited other development projects where that funding plan was used.
Stephens said he didn’t think that use was, or is, appropriate. He said the entity that is slated to receive the sales tax would not get to use as much because of the rebate.
“Those funds are not used in the areas where they’re obligated,” the commission president said. “In this instance, the indigent care fund. That’s general sales tax, and it was dedicated, obligated, encumbered, whatever you want to call it, to Cooper Green Hospital and the operation of that facility by legislative action. That money is to go to them, and if we rebate that money, they’re losing use of it.”
County Attorney Theo Lawson said he will assess the situation and explain the matter to commissioners prior to Thursday’s meeting. Stephens said the commission wants to help with the development.
“We’re gonna help them,” he said, “but you’ve got to help them the right way.”
