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July la, 2006 (Regular Meeting] Page 18 Mr. Cox also commented on the historical voting practices of Board members on incentive grant requests. He introduced Clay Andrews, Recruiter with the Cabarrus EDC, to present suggested modifications to the County's current Industrial Development Incentive Grant program. Mr. Andrews reported Board members asked the EDC last year to review the County's incentive policy for competitiveness. He said the review was completed and recommendations presented to the Board of Commissioners. At the Board's request, the EDC had shared those recommendations with the other governments in the County. Further, he said the recommended adjustments had been taken back to the EDC Board and formally endorsed. Mr. Andrews reviewed the current incentive investment structure and outlined the following proposed changes: (1) implement a standard county-wide grant of 85 percent of the company's tax bill; (2) standardize incentives to three years on land, improvements and personal property with no depreciation; (3) reduce the required minimum capital investment to $1.5 million in land, improvements and machinery; (4) specify businesses engaged in manufacturing, distribution, corporate offices, research and development, and call centers are eligible for an incentive grant; (5) provide an option of adding more years to the term of the incentive grant to increase competitiveness; and (6) negotiate investments over $30 million on a case-by-case basis. Mr. Andrews reported changing the grant to 85 percent of the property taxes over a three-year period would have very little effect on the net gain to the County. He used several examples, such as the grant for Double 0 Plastics, Inc., to demonstrate this point. He said these changes are more customer friendly, easier for the County to administer and allows the County to take advantage of State matching grant funds. Mr. Andrews asked the Board to adopt the new guidelines and direct staff to incorporate them into to a new legal document to be used for qualifying businesses from this point forward. He responded to a variety of questions concerning the proposed changes. There was a brief discussion on how the County's current policy is one of the least competitive incentive policies in the market. vice Industrial Andrews to Chairman Juba made a motion to approve the changes to the Development Incentive Grant program guidelines as presented by Mr. be effective immediately. Commissioner Carpenter seconded the motion. commissioner Privette offered the following amendment to Vice Chairman Juba's motion for the incentive grant program to include the following: ~if any recipient of an incentive grant is found guilty of a criminal offense, the grant will be forfeited and restitution must be made to the County of the provisions of that grant that has been received". He stated the reason for the amendment was the recent newspaper articles that Gene Haas has been accused of defrauding the federal government of $20 million in taxes. He stated Mr. Haas will receive more than $1 million in incentive grants from Cabarrus County. Commissioner Freeman seconded Commissioner Privette's amendment. Richard M. Koch, Acting County Attorney, recipients of the grants in the Haas cases were not the corporations, which are separate legal entities. Commissioner Privette's amendment would not require forfeit the grants. pointed out that the the individual but were He said the wording of those corporations to Commissioner Privette changed the amendment to read ~if any recipient, be it either the corporation or the CEO, of the incentive grant..." There was discussion on what constitutes a ~criminal offense". Mr. Cox stated his objections to Commissioner Privette's amendment and commented on the concept called ~grace". He also commented on the current and future employees of the Haas companies and the livelihood of those individuals. Mr. Cox and Mr. Andrews also responded to questions about requiring a company that receives an incentive grant to remain in Cabarrus County for a five-year period. Mr. Andrews pointed out there is always a net gain to the County when an incentive is paid to a company.