The Jacksonville Economic Development Commission on Thursday approved a Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund to help create 30 new full-time information technology jobs through the expansion of a local company.
Global Software Services Inc., at 7800 Belfort Parkway, develops proprietary software used by the debt collection industry.
Doing business as Latitude Software, the company has 41 full-time employees on its payroll and plans to add 30 more over three years.
Its parent company, Interactive Intelligence Group Inc., has its headquarters in Indianapolis, Ind. The QTI would allow Globel Software Services to remain in Jacksonville and hire the new employees, as opposed to consolidating operations in Indianapolis.
The proposed tax refund of $6,000 per job is based on the average salary of $67,670, which is 150 percent of the state average. Also, the state designates information technology as a high-impact sector.
The company proposes to create the jobs before Dec. 31, 2014. It also proposes a $1 million capital investment in machinery, equipment and fixtures.
The total tax refund would be paid over four years after the jobs are created and verified. The state would pay 80 percent of the refund, $144,000, with the City funding the remainder, $36,000.
Taxes that qualify for the refund include corporate income, sales, ad valorem, intangible personal property, insurance premium and others.
Carl Harkleroad, Global Software Services founder and president, attended the meeting. Asked if an improvement in the economy might reduce the demand for his company’s products, assuming that fewer borrowers might be delinquent in their installment payments, he said that’s not an issue.
“We’re not a call center. We sell software to call centers and it will still be hard to collect debt,” Harkleroad said.
The company has identified growth opportunities among banks and other financial institutions that have what he called “dated software” that has to be replaced to meet new industry regulations.
“They have to upgrade. That puts us in sort of a sweet spot,” said Harkleroad.
The company also has diversified its client services into providing Web hosting, servers and other Internet-based services.
“The big growth for us will be in the hosting side of the business. In this economy, people don’t want to make the capital investment. They’d rather pay us a monthly fee,” said Harkleroad.
The commission unanimously approved the QTI, which will be sent to City Council for its consideration.
Also approved was a lease renewal at Cecil Commerce Center for M&T Company.
The firm has 21 employees who engineer and assemble electronic equipment for military aviation clients. M&T has been in operation at Cecil Commerce Center since 2004 and leases 8,870 square feet of office and light industrial space in two buildings owned by the City.
The commission approved a one-year lease at $7.59 a square foot for a monthly base rate of $5,610.28 with two additional 12-month renewal options.
The next meeting of the JEDC is scheduled at 9 a.m. Jan. 12 in the mayor’s office at City Hall.
356-2466