NASHVILLE, Tennessee – The first meeting of Tennessee House of Representatives members interested in issues related to rural districts was organized by Representative Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) and attended by nearly three dozen legislators.
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The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development will reportedly bestow corporate welfare upon a new business in Cleveland, near Chattanooga. This, according to this week’s Cleveland Daily Banner. The reported recipient of this money is called Triumph Sheets LLC, an affiliate of Schwarz Partners. An unnamed representative of Schwarz Partners told The Tennessee Star Friday that no one at the company usually talks to the media. No one at the Tennessee ECD returned The Star’s repeated requests for comment Friday. “The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development will be providing grant funding through its FastTrack Infrastructure Development Program to assist the Industrial Development Board and the city of Cleveland with the costs of railroad infrastructure rehabilitation, Berry said,” according to The Cleveland Daily Banner. “As a result, the Cleveland/Bradley County Industrial Development Board, along with Bradley County and the City of Cleveland, will apply for a FastTrack grant for $500,000 from the state’s TDECD to assist with the infrastructure needs of the project.” In addition, according to the newspaper, “the state will provide $50,000 to offset training expenses, as well as some $2.5 million in job creation, enhanced jobs, industrial machinery and sales and use tax exemption…
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Nashville won’t be getting Amazon’s new HQ2, but in a surprise announcement Tuesday the city will get Amazon’s new Operations Center of Excellence in exchange for $102 million in taxpayer-funded performance-based incentives. A press conference held at the State Capital with outgoing Governor Bill Haslam, Economic Community Development (ECD) Commissioner Bob Rolfe, and Nashville Mayor David Briley appeared with Amazon’s Holly Sullivan to make the announcement. While Nashville was considered to be in the hunt as one of the top 20 for Amazon’s HQ2, that distinction was awarded to New York and Virginia. Being a finalist “opened the opportunity for Nashville to be chosen for this significant operation,” according to Ralph Schulz, President and CEO of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. The new operation promises 5,000 new jobs with average salaries of $150,000 per year, Haslam said during the press conference. While Amazon’s investment to establish the operation is sited as $230 million, the announcement didn’t address the $102 million in incentives as the trade-off. Incentives from the State include a $65 million grant for capital expenses and allows Amazon seven years to create the 5,000 jobs. A tax credit from the State of Tennessee worth $21.7 million is…
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Less than two weeks before Governor Haslam introduced his IMPROVE Act centered on a gas tax increase for road funding, Pure Foods, Inc., a recipient of $1.2 million in state economic development funds, filed for bankruptcy. The $1. 2 million from the state’s FastTrack Economic Development (ED) Fund did not go directly to Pure Foods. Instead, it was allocated for use by KEDB for construction of a speculative building that Pure Foods leased for 10 years. According to the Kingsport Tennessee Times News, in March 2015, the Canadian based gluten-free snack food company, Pure Foods, Inc., was set to establish its U.S. headquarters at the Gateway Commerce Park in Kingsport, Sullivan County. The deal included an investment of $22 million, an 80,000-plus square foot facility, and the creation of 273 new jobs generating an annual a payroll of $8 million. The Kingsport Economic Development Board (KEDB) and the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce also supported the project by providing financial assistance and various incentives, including the purchase of 33 acres of land in the Gateway Commerce Park for $6.5 million borrowed from First Tennessee Bank. According to the Transparent Tennessee website’s FastTrack Project Database, ED grants provide additional support for…
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