Tennessee has handed out $21.7 million in FastTrack business incentive grants so far this year through April to a total of 21 businesses.
The Department of Economic and Community Development’s FastTrack grant program are state grants sent to companies to help offset the costs of expanding or moving into the state with the goal of increasing the number of full-time jobs and the average wages of jobs available in an area.
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Bridgetown Natural Foods is receiving $1.3 million through incenctives for its $78.3 million manufacturing and distribution facility in Tennessee.
The project in Lebanon is being awarded a FastTrack Job Training Assistance Grant that was not disclosed Wednesday and was first listed without a project name by the State Funding Board.
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Tennessee’s Department of Economic & Community Development asked for $78 million for its FastTrack business incentive program next budget year.
The Fasttrack program received $92 million in 2022, $432 million in 2023 and $110 million in 2024.
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Tennessee has committed to more than $60 million in FastTrack economic incentive grants to businesses this year after committing more than $200 million of the grants to businesses in 2021.
FastTrack grants are state grants sent to local governments for specific infrastructure improvements or to companies to help offset the costs of expanding or moving into the state with the goal of increasing the number of full-time jobs and the average wages of jobs available in an area.
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The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development awarded more than $108.5 million in FastTrack economic development grants between 51 businesses in the first half of 2021, according to a database from the department.
The largest was a $60 million grant to Ultium Cells for its $2.3 billion investment to create 1,300 jobs with its 2.8-million-square-foot plant in Spring Hill to build vehicle battery cells.
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For the first seven years of Governor Haslam’s term, his budget for the State of Tennessee grew a record $30.2 to $37.3 billion, but the upcoming budget for 2018-19, Haslam’s final year in office, is basically flat at $37.5 billion. Budget appropriations are stated in three categories: State at $17.7 billion; federal at $13.9 billion and $5.9 billion from “other.” Over the past seven years, the state portion of the budget grew an average of four percent with a range of a $40 million reduction in 2014-15 to the highest increase of $1.5 billion in 2017-18, but this year that portion of the budget is reduced an eight-year record of $190 million. State Commissioner of Finance and Administration, Larry Martin, explained in his presentation on the 2018-19 budget to the Senate Finance Ways & Means Committee Tuesday the process for forecasting revenue for the state. The State Funding Board, in November of each year, receives forecasts from four economists, including the State Department of Revenue, from which recommendations are made on the likely growth trends. The funding board provides a projected growth range to the governor, which was 2.7 to 3.2 percent for this year. The governor then has prerogative…
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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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