Editor’s Note: “The Economic Development Side” originally appears in the Pine Bluff Regional Chamber of Commerce’s weekly member e-newsletter. It is written by Rhonda Dishner, the Economic Development Alliance’s executive assistant.
Fans of the 1980s television action series The A Team will readily remember one of the team leader’s signature phrases: “I love it when a plan comes together!”
This was a very funny statement because, ironically, almost every time he gleefully made that pronouncement, the exact opposite seemed to be true. Things were not going as planned, but he just knew that everything would eventually work out right. And it did. That’s being positive about plans and outcomes.
Having a plan is a good thing. Working hard and expecting success is a better thing. But seeing the anticipated results of an effort is a superlative (super) outcome indeed.
There was a two-fold Jefferson County plan several years ago. It included winning approval for a county-wide, 3/8-cent sales tax to provide incentives for economic development projects creating good-paying industrial jobs and making capital investments in the community.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
That part of the plan came to fruition in February 2011 when voters approved the tax. Collected sales taxes began returning to the county in July 2011. And the second phase of the plan became operational as proposed incentives packages were reviewed and approved by the tax’s oversight board, the Economic Development Corporation.
In the intervening years, this ability to award those funds for approved projects has positioned Jefferson County to be even more appealing to industries and provided our community with a decided advantage. It has already resulted in hundreds of new jobs here, the retention of hundreds of existing jobs, and capital expenditures totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
We’ve seen existing companies like Kiswire and Strong Manufacturing expand their operations, and retain a total of several hundred existing jobs, while utilizing tax incentives. We’ve seen new companies locate here, like Highland Pellets that built a large new manufacturing plant from the ground up while spending about $230 million in the community.
And we’ve noted the major coup of the announcement by Energy Security Partners (ESP) that it plans to build a $3.7 billion gas-to-liquid processing facility in the county. That project will mean over 2,000 construction jobs, 225 permanent jobs paying high wages, and the projection of additional phases that could eventually put ESP’s total Jefferson County investment up to $10 billion. Plans for Phase I alone would make it the largest economic development project — ever — in the state of Arkansas.
The Economic Development Alliance’s objective right now is to continue promoting Jefferson County to new industries, offering assistance to existing companies thinking about expanding, and touting the availability of local incentive funds. So far, the plan really has been coming together. Really.