PILOTS Archives - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

30 Sep, 2018

Google’s secrecy agreement with the Montgomery County IDB should be undone

By Deborah Fisher|2020-11-19T12:35:59-06:00September 30, 2018|Categories: economic development, exemptions, Legislature|Tags: economic development, Google, Jack McElroy, Montgomery County Industrial Development Board, Open Records Ad Hoc Committee, PILOTS, trade secrets|0 Comments

The Google groundbreaking via WRKN February 2018. On Dec. 22 2015, the Industrial Development Board of Montgomery County entered into a “Payment in Lieu of Tax Agreement” with Google “to induce” it to build and operate an information technology center near Clarksville. It provided that: Google, through its company Foxman LLC, would take over property (which the government had purchased with taxpayer funds) through a lease agreement; The industrial development board would issue as much as $2 billion in industrial revenue bonds to help Google finance additional facilities and equipment on the property, and; Google would be relieved from paying any taxes on the land for 20 years, [...]

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 [...]

7 Aug, 2015

New accounting standard to require governments to disclose cost of tax breaks

By Deborah Fisher|2020-11-19T12:24:13-06:00August 7, 2015|Categories: economic development|Tags: Chattanooga, economic development, economic development records, Helen Burns Sharp, Memphis, PILOTS, Shelby County|0 Comments

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board approved a new rule on Monday that requires governments to include in financial statements the value of tax abatements given to companies to spur economic development starting next year. "The results of external research ... suggest that tax abatements are an issue of concern among citizen groups, county board members, and municipal bond analysts, and that each group desires to receive information about the level of abatement activity and the results of the abatement programs," according to GASB. "However, the researchers found relatively few states (six) with statutes requiring any level of external reporting after tax abatements are granted. These findings indicate that there is an important information need that [...]