On Monday, Feb. 22, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners voted 7 to 2 to approve a $7 million incentives package for High Point that completely resets the county’s long established policies and practices regarding incentives.
The two no votes were from the two Republican commissioners on the board – Justin Conrad and Alan Perdue – who strongly objected to the $7 million handout on a vast number of grounds.
“This isn’t bad policy – this is horrible policy,” said an incensed Conrad after the online meeting.
In the past, the county’s incentives have gone to businesses. High Point is a city with its own tax base.
In the past, when the county has offered an economic incentive, it has been for a specific, well-defined project with exact job creation or scope of investment numbers promised. With the incentives approved Monday evening, no one knows what the money will be used for.
It was made clear that the $7 million, paid out over 20 years, was to be used for some sort of downtown development, and that the money could not be used to pay off the debt from past projects – especially, the commissioners said, not the debt from the new downtown stadium in High Point.
High Point will report back to Guilford County at the end of each year and inform the commissioners how the city has been spending the money.
In one of many very interesting moments in the meeting, Commissioner Carolyn Coleman said she didn’t want the money to be used to build a parking deck.
Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston responded, “High Point has not agreed to build a parking deck as of right now, I don’t think.”
Coleman replied, “But they have not said they won’t build one.”
“Well, we don’t know what they’re gonna – we don’t know what the demand is going to be; they don’t know what the demand is going to be, so we don’t know,” Alston said.
“Coleman said, “Well I guess I’d like them to narrow it down a little.”
Conrad jumped in.
“You’re a hundred percent right, Miss Coleman,” he said. “That’s exactly the point: We don’t know what the money is going to – all we know is that we are providing $7 million.”
Alston said, “What they would do, in the motion, Miss Coleman, is that they would give a list of everything they used the money for at the end of the year – to justify the money.”
He added, “I would hope that we would stay in contact with them since we are partnering with them on this now.”
Alston’s point is a good one. It does seem like, if you’re giving someone $7 million, the least they can do is check back in with you every now and then and let you know how they’re spending the money.
Commissioner Kay Cashion was taken aback when the motion was stated at the meeting.
“The language has changed again,” she said.
But she was one of the lucky ones because she apparently had seen at least one version of the motion before voting on it. Other commissioners had seen nothing.
In the past, the approved incentives have been in writing and included in the meeting agenda.
Perdue said during the meeting that he couldn’t vote for it because he didn’t even know what the motion was. He said he wanted to see something in writing in order to discuss it intelligently.
Conrad also said he had not seen anything in writing.
“They didn’t give it to us,” Conrad said after the meeting. “We didn’t have the motion.”
The Rhino Tines was surprised to see before the meeting started that the motion was not posted with the agenda, as is standard practice. Nor was there a general description of the motion. Nor was a copy provided after the Rhino Times requested one at the start of the meeting. Nor was one provided by late Monday night.
Here is the entire meeting agenda posted by the county:
- Welcome and Call to Order
- Unfinished Business
Also, in the past, incentives have been used to persuade a company to choose Guilford County over a competing location. High Point was presumably not going to conduct its downtown development in Memphis or Tucson if the commissioners didn’t approve the incentive.
The most certain point stressed at the meeting seemed to be that money was not going to be used to pay off debt for High Point’s downtown stadium – which, interestingly, was exactly what the money was initially requested for four years ago when High Point first came to the commissioners and requested incentive money.
Shenanigans. How can any elected official vote on items they haven’t even had time to.read? Alston is as always playing fast and loose with tax dollars with little or no knowledge or accounting of how money will be used. Staff is complicit Un not posting proper agenda and need discipline or replacing. Staff serves the commissionsers but work for the people of Guilford county and we all deserve transparent and open government.
What a circus. Guilford County is in for a long and bumpy ride.
As I’ve said time and time again, is anyone surprised by this?
Am I the only one who sees that the amount asked for just happens to be the same amount they wanted for the ball stadium. “Oh yeah, we’ll agree not to spend it on teh ball field.” (It’s not like we can’t just use it to replace whatever we cut on paper.)
Come on Skip. Do you really want to insult the intelligence of the average County citizen by thinking “if I get a promise not to use THIS money out of them people will buy into it.”
We already know this is going to pass. I do give some credit to Miss. Coleman for at least trying, even though I’m sure she’s going to vote for it.
All I can ask at this point is that the (National Socialist) Democrats on the Board quit insulting our intelligence with their pablum.
I would like to suggest that all county staff start formatting all of their funding requests to this board in the same way. You want $X for what? We just need the money, it doesn’t really matter what for. We’ll make something up later. While we’re still bewildered, I must ask, what’s the minority participation percentage on those $7 million good for anything bucks? They’re always crowing about that, but now we just give money away. That $7 million that won’t fund other NEEDS. Thats $7 million out the window when they still can’t tell you how they’re going to pay for the $300 million+ in bonds from November! If it were a joke it would be hilarious, sadly it’s our tax dollars.
If I come before the commission and just tell them I’d like for them to give me 7 mil, how do you think that would fly? Like a lead balloon? Eh?
If they will give me 7 million dollars, I promise not to spend it on a stadium. And I’ll send them a detailed report each year of what I have used it for that year. How soon can I expect the check?
Good Grief!
$7,000,000 given to a City with its own tax base, and with nothing specific to spend it on?
This is beyond fiscal irresponsibility, this is a grave injustice done to all Guilford County taxpayers.
I fear this is just the beginning but then this is what you voted for.
This is the very reason I am getting the heck out of Guilford County.
You should have left sooner. If you are selling a house, its value just went down because of the commissioners’ stupidity. Who wants to pay extra taxes just to line the pockets of the commissioners’ friends?
Since it is apparent that you have not performed your investigation of the issues at hand, let me give you some background. The Rocker’s stadium was a catalyst project to initiate new mixed use development in the area around the stadium. As of today, there are multiple projects that are in the works including condos and offices, a food court, and Congdon Yards which is a great example of the philanthropy of the people in High Point. As you should certainly appreciate, our older downtown has been sacrificed for the furniture market. The “new” downtown is further north and slightly west. Many local developers are interested in helping the development of the real estate in this area. However, there is a significant cost in infrastructure, environmental remediation, property acquisition and the cost for marketing and planning. Any improvements that grow from the modest investment by the Guilford County Commissioners will be returned as property taxes increase, jobs are created and High Point’s downtown is revitalized. Personally, I would rather see “incentives” such as this go to local governments than out of town businesses that make great promises about new jobs and then fall flat on their face after just a few years. If you need examples, you are not paying any attention to local issues.
I can’t think of one downtown that is centered on an outdoor stadium’s pitching mound or fifty-yard line. It’s a piece of the puzzle, but won’t by itself change much. Fifty or sixty days a year, there’s baseball for a few hours. What about the rest of the year?
Downtown High Point is a joke. I remember recently, when my nephew was in town, we were waiting at the Amtrak station to go to Greensboro and back (he loves trains). Some people had just gotten off the Winston-Salem connector bus and asked if there was a McDonald’s or anywhere to eat while they waited. I told them no, because there aren’t any. What kind of downtown has nowhere to eat for visitors? High Point.
Nido is getting his money back for paying for his stadium (that he already raised double the amount that he asked for). The Furniture Festival is getting what it wants. The rest of the people in the town aren’t worth two cents to the politicians. No sidewalks on North Main Street. No fixed potholes that are worse than the dozen other municipalities I’ve ever lived in. No good solutions to the crime problem, that drove Sheetz out of South Main. No fixing the blight in that part of town. No real downtown for ordinary people for most of the year.
And before Barry tells me to get over it or leave, why should I? Can’t I want the community to improve? Or is it enough that only the wealthy and well connected get what they want? How sad.