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ALLIANCE: TAX STILL NEEDED

By Amy Widner/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, November 14, 2009 9:29 PM CST

Residents haven’t heard the last of the economic development sales tax that failed at the ballot box in 2008, Lou Ann Nisbett told the Leadership Pine Bluff class recently.

“We hope to again go about [trying to pass] an economic development tax because we don’t want the legacy from Forbes magazine — to be one of the poorest cities in the nation,” said Nisbett, president and chief executive officer of The Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County.

In October, Forbes ranked Pine Bluff third among the 10 poorest cities in America.

An economic development tax would be used to offer incentive packages to businesses interested in locating in Pine Bluff. Nisbett said incentives are an important part of the recruitment process and are more commonly used by other communities than many may realize.

She cited Conway’s $43 million incentive package for Hewlett-Packard as an example. Mississippi County routinely starts its negotiations with $1 million on the table, she said.

“Do you know how many funds we have? None,” Nisbett asked. She said that Pine Bluff often gets on the short list of communities a company is considering, but that incentive packages make the difference between a near deal and a done deal.

“Many of you hear about new industries locating here or there, but not in Pine Bluff. If you look at the incentives it took to get them there, you’ll start to understand,” Nisbett said.

A proposed half-cent economic development sales tax was put to Jefferson County voters in 2008 and failed. Pine Bluff Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr. opposed the proposed sales tax measure in 2008. He was quoted as saying he felt the proposed tax was “ill-conceived” because the input of elected officials was not sought.

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