The City Council Finance Committee approved two measures Tuesday for two companies to receive tax incentives in return for creating a total of 205 jobs.
The Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund incentives were approved for Medtronic Xomed Inc. and KCI Enterprises Corp. They fall under the targeted industries of medical and aviation services.
Both must still be approved by full Council on Tuesday.
Medtronic is seeking incentives totaling $2.53 million for the creation of 175 jobs with an average wage of $80,000 and a benefits package worth $18,000.
The City’s portion would be $660,000 total.
The QTI would be worth $1.225 million, with the City contributing $245,000 and state contributing $980,000.
The remaining incentives come from approval of a “Revenue Enhanced Value” grant from the City of $415,000 paid after the project is completed for increased realized property taxes as well as $630,000 from the governor’s “Quick Action Closing Fund” and $262,500 from the state’s “Quick Response Training Program.”
The global company bases its Surgical Technologies Division in Jacksonville and makes medical products used in diagnosis and treatment.
The Jacksonville expansion would be on the Southside and increase Medtronic’s general office space, research and development capability, laboratory space and customer training labs, according to a legislative fact sheet on the projects.
The fact sheet also said the company will invest $14.1 million in the project and also is considering Fort Worth, Texas, for the expansion.
The Finance Committee also approved incentives for KCI Enterprises, which is seeking an aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facility and would add 30 jobs at an average wage of $45,834.
The total QTI with a Brownfield bonus amount is for $165,000, with City support of $33,000 and state support of $132,000.
According to the legislative fact sheet, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana are also being considered for the project. The jobs would be created within 36 months after a location is chosen.
The company will invest $500,000 to provide tooling and machinery for the project.
Both measures passed with a 6-1 vote, with Council member Clay Yarborough in opposition.
Also from Tuesday’s Finance Committee meeting:
• A Finance subcommittee to review audits and reports about City finances and operations met after Tuesday’s regular meeting and received some positive news. The committee, consisting of Greg Anderson, chairman, Richard Clark and John Crescimbeni, heard reports from a new audit company that reviewed several 2010 topics and came back with an unqualified opinion, the equivalent of a “clean bill of health.”
• The Finance Committee withdrew two lingering items, both at the request of the mayor’s administration. The first was an ordinance that would have authorized the Public Works Department to collect a $13 fee for delivery of recycle bins to residential solid waste customers and allow the City’s chief of solid waste to adjust the fees as economic conditions warrant.
The proposal was introduced in January at the request of the mayor and the fee would have gone entirely toward the purchase, storage, handling and fuel for delivery of the bins.
The second ordinance withdrawal pertained to allowing the director of finance to delete certain missing or stolen items from the City’s Tangible Personal Property Records.
• Also withdrawn was an ordinance approving an open air market operator agreement between the City and Riverside Arts Market LLC for the operation of an initial term of 10 years with options to renew for three additional 10-year periods for a license fee of $1 a year. The current agreement between the two entities is on a yearly basis. The committee did not discuss the issue.
• After much discussion to kick off the meeting, an ordinance to appropriate $425,000 from the City’s Foreclosed and Vacant Property Registrations to the City’s Foreclosure Intervention Program ($100,000) and City’s Homebuyer Counseling Program ($325,000) was deferred.
Discussion centered on the language and intent of the original ordinance and whether the money was being properly used. Some Council members believed the purpose was to contain blight on already foreclosed properties while others believed the intent was to keep homeowners from foreclosure and prevent potential blight if properties were abandoned.
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