Ice storm may bring Scott County closer to getting special business tax abatement zone

BENTON, Mo. -- There may be a silver lining to the big gray cloud of the January ice storms after all for Scott County. The storms have qualified the entire county to become an Enhanced Enterprise Zone.

A public hearing for the Scott County Enhanced Enterprise Zone was held during the regular County Commission meeting Tuesday.

Establishing the county's EEZ has been "kind of been a long struggle for us," said Presiding Commissioner Jamie Burger -- but worth working for. "I think it will be a very good thing for Scott County over a long period of time."

Joel Evans, county developer, said he began working on the county EEZ project about two years ago.

Enhanced Enterprise Zones are geographic areas designated by local governments and certified by the Missouri Department of Economic Development. Incentives such as tax credits and tax abatements can be offered to qualifying new or expanding business within that zone.

When Evans began the project, only about a third of the county was eligible for inclusion in the EEZ.

"Some areas were not eligible because of the poverty and unemployment rates," said Steve Duke, executive director of the Bootheel Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission at Dexter.

Following the ice storms in January, however, the county received a disaster declaration. "That made the entire county eligible for the Enhanced Enterprise Zone," Duke said.

In addition to areas that weren't eligible before the ice storms, "initially the city of Miner opted out," Burger recalled.

The administration for the city of Miner which had declined to participate and some of the taxing entities in the county had expressed concerns about the loss of tax revenue from the abatement incentives the EEZ provides incoming and expanding businesses.

Evans said bringing those entities on board was a matter of making it clear that it is better to get "half of something instead of all of nothing." With no EEZ in place, a location can "get looked over by a lot of businesses before you even know you are being considered," he said.

The revised geographic area for the EEZ includes the entire county excepting only the city of Sikeston, which already has its own EEZ in place, and three small areas of unincorporated county area located near Sikeston that can not be included as they are not contiguous with the county EEZ.

Evans said he is looking for the EEZ to be approved by the Missouri Department of Economic Development shortly after the beginning of the year.

Burger said he was both surprised and enlightened by the number of interested parties that attended the EEZ's public hearing.

Carol Shoemaker, a specialist for the department of economic development, answered several questions during the hearing about the EEZ eligibility.

Shoemaker noted that incentives are directly tied to jobs that are actually created and that to be eligible under state requirements, the employer must pay at least the county's average wage and at least half of the employee's health benefits.

She advised that gambling establishments, retail trade, educational services, religious organizations, public administrators and food and drinking places are all prohibited by statute from receiving the state tax credits.

The EEZ board determines what level or tax abatement to offer, according to Shoemaker, with a minimum of 50 percent for 10 years and a maximum of 100 percent for 25 years.