ATLANTA Government officials in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina have until tomorrow to submit incentives packages aimed at luring Dell Inc. to their city or county.
Gov. Mike Easley announced earlier this month that the state had granted the computer manufacturer a historic package so that it would choose the state to build a facility. With that package in hand, Dell officials are waiting to see what local incentives could be offered from Forsyth and Guilford counties, as well as the cities of Greensboro, High Point, and Winston-Salem.
Several closed-door meetings have been held over the past two weeks with the boards of commissioners for the counties and city councils. Public hearings are also scheduled for next month.
Officials have been mum about the details of their packages, saying it would be premature to discuss their ideas with the media before formally presenting them to Dell. However, some of them have acknowledged that a recently approved measure that would allow tax increment finance districts to be set up could be considered as an option.
Voters approved a ballot referendum earlier this month to allow municipalities to set up the districts and sell self-financing bonds to cover projects, such as those for infrastructure.
Regardless of what Dell gets out of the local governments, it has received an extremely rich package out of the state.
The General Assembly convened for a one-day session earlier this month and discussions led to the largest incentives package ever granted by the state. Dell will get up to $225 million in tax credits over the next 15 years.
In return, the state hopes to get more than $700 million in net revenue over the next 20 years.
Dell will invest $100 million in the new facility, and it will employ at least 1,500 people.
That would be very advantageous to any of the municipalities in the Piedmont Triad area because they have been among the hardest hit from the slowing economy. The region relied heavily on manufacturing, and unlike other areas such as Charlotte in Mecklenburg County, which recovered partly by boosting its banking presence the Triad areas economy has remained idle.
