Jackson County offers incentives to land new manufacturing jobs
Jackson County leaders are considering an economic development incentive that will provide property tax credits to Stonewall Packaging in exchange for a minimum $10 million investment in a new facility in Sylva and creation of at least 40 full-time jobs by 2010.
The new hires must make a salary of at least $39,000 per year, which is well above the county average of $27,820.
The county would provide grants of $32,500 per new job with a cap of $1.3 million. The grants would come out of property taxes Stonewall pays to the county, which would then be returned to the company. Jackson County officials who support the measure insisted on Monday that it will not be a handout.
“Jackson County decided not to do a cash outlay from our coffers,” said Commissioner Tom Massie. “This essentially doesn’t cost us anything. Without the jobs being created, we wouldn’t have gained anything at all. We’re simply providing a financial incentive.”
But Carl Iobst of Jackson County Citizens Action Group is far from convinced.
“Why is a private corporation that seems to be doing pretty good...why are they coming to the county with their hands out?” said Iobst. “They’ve been in business for a while. It seems like they could find some funding.”
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Stonewall Packaging, a joint venture of Jackson Paper Manufacturing, is planning a 200,000-square-foot addition to its current corrugated cardboard plant in downtown Sylva. Jackson Paper has said that it will exceed the county’s requirements by creating 61 new jobs and investing more than $16 million. It will also receive a $200,000 grant from a state economic development incentive program.
County Manager Kenneth Westmoreland said he believed emphatically that the financial incentive would be good for the community.
“Obviously in this day and time, any new jobs are very attractive,” he said.
The county says it has worked closely with experts in formulating an exact contract for the deal.
“Everything’s in writing. There’s nothing left to chance, nothing left to speculation,” Westmoreland said.
Jackson County will accept written comments from the public about their opinions on the plan for the next two weeks before it comes to a vote.
