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Join regional group
Why not try it?
Web posted
Friday, December 29, 2000
Have a thought? Go to the @ugusta Forums.
Loss of independence. Maybe, maybe not.
Backers of the coalition plan, like the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce and Authority Vice Chairman Robert Osborne (city president of Wachovia Bank) underscore out that other counties which have joined have no complaints. Besides, if it doesn't work out, just withdraw.
As it stands now, this is a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Augusta-Richmond County has been losing business to Aiken County because South Carolina's menu of incentives is millions of dollars more generous than Georgia's.
Joining CSRA Unified, a 10-county agency including Columbia and McDuffie counties, wouldn't be a cure-all. Yet it would permit Richmond County to offer a $500 tax credit per worker that the state allows member counties to offer all companies, including non-manufacturing industries.
By turning down the regional coalition, the local development authority is banking on state Senate majority leader Charles Walker, D-Augusta, to work with Gov. Roy Barnes to develop legislation to strengthen the state's job tax credit program. But as Walker points out, Georgia counties would still be at a disadvantage in competing with the Palmetto State because the latter can offer giveaways - grants, buildings, infrastructure - to attract business and industry which Georgia law prohibits.
It would take a change in the Georgia constitution to empower public bodies to serve up the kinds of incentives South Carolina can, says Walker, and the General Assembly is in no mood now to revamp the constitution.
Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff
The Richmond County Development Authority says it won't join a regional development authority for now because it fears a loss of independence. Authority attorney Jerry Dye advised members that a linkup with the CSRA Unified Development Authority, designed to address regional projects such as landfills and industrial parks, would give that agency the power to vote on local industrial revenue bond issues.
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