economic development Archives - Page 4 of 6 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

20 Mar, 2017

Even elected officials have trouble prying loose government information

By Deborah Fisher|2017-03-27T16:21:38-05:00March 20, 2017|Categories: economic development, Legislature|Tags: outsourcing, proactive disclosure|0 Comments

Tucked in a Nashville Scene article about Nashville councilman John Cooper is an anecdote that is not altogether unusual -- an elected official hitting a roadblock in getting what he thinks should be basic public government information. At-large Nashville Councilman John Cooper Cooper is the chairman of Metro Council's Budget and Finance Committee and the article by Steven Hale describes him as "a vocal opponent of the type of incentive deals that have been a staple of Metro's economic development strategy for years." Cooper tells The Scene that "I'm kind of in a thing with Rolling Mill Hill, trying to get just basic information about the transaction." Having a [...]

12 Dec, 2016

Public records request reveals county dropped the ball in monitoring PILOT agreements

By Deborah Fisher|2016-12-12T11:12:13-06:00December 12, 2016|Categories: economic development|Tags: economic development records, Johnson City Press, PILOTS, Washington County|0 Comments

Ten years ago, two Japanese companies agreed to bring jobs and investment to Washington County if the county gave them 10 years worth of tax breaks on their property, buildings and equipment. To monitor whether the companies met their promised job requirements, they were supposed to file annual job reports. If they fell short of the jobs promise, they lost a proportional amount of that year's tax break. Washington County Industrial Park (Nathan Baker) Sounds reasonable and fair, and the work of government officials trying to look out for the county's best interest. Problem was, the company did not file those annual reports -- at least until this [...]

26 Oct, 2016

ECD posts online database of FastTrack grants, but leaves out job creation

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T18:57:25-05:00October 26, 2016|Categories: economic development, open data|Tags: ECD, economic development, tax credits|0 Comments

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development has posted online a searchable database of FastTrack grants since 2011, but has left out key information it gathers on job creation. Mike Reicher, a data reporter on The Tennessean's investigative reporting team, writes about the development in some depth here: State releases list of business grants totaling $400 M. There are many things to like about the database from an open government perspective. For one, it replaces what essentially were PDFs of FastTrack grants, and PDFs of other documents associated with the grants, but in a jumble of different styles that made it difficult to make connections or draw any meaning from it. The new database is [...]

2 Jun, 2016

72% of Tennesseans think the state is not transparent with economic incentives to corporations

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T18:56:25-05:00June 2, 2016|Categories: economic development|Tags: Beacon Center, ECD, economic development, tax credits|2 Comments

Just how transparent is the state of Tennessee with its economic development programs? In the eyes of Tennesseans, not very. A new poll by icitizen and The Beacon Center of Tennessee measured opinions about the state's economic development activities. The Beacon Center favors stemming "corporate handouts" to specific companies in favor of lowering business taxes for everyone. Most of the questions were designed to measure approval or disapproval of incentive programs. While the poll results show mixed opinions about tax breaks for select companies, what's indisputable is that Tennesseans largely think the state is not transparent about them. A whopping 72 percent agreed with the statement: "State government is not transparent with the incentives it [...]

14 Dec, 2015

Report: Fiscal impact of tax breaks kept confidential

By Deborah Fisher|2015-12-14T10:14:05-06:00December 14, 2015|Categories: economic development|Tags: Brett Carter, economic development, Fiscal Review Committee, litigation, Revenue Department, tax records|0 Comments

Tom Humphrey reports in his Humphrey on the Hill blog about a report to the state's Fiscal Review Committee last week that highlights an inability to measure the cost of tax breaks because of a confidentiality exemption regarding tax records. The exemption, T.C.A. 67-1-1702, makes confidential "returns, tax information and tax administration information" and prevented the committee's staff from checking on whether cost of a tax break was accurately predicted when legislation creating the tax break passed. From the blog, "Impact of tax breaks kept confidential": The confidentiality granted state Department of Revenue records prevents legislators from learning whether the estimates used in adopting tax credit legislation are accurate, the executive director [...]