Opinion
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The Dell money
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Published: November 8, 2009
Winston-Salem and Forsyth County cooperated closely to raise incentives to land the Dell computer plant. Now that the company is closing the plant and has refunded the city and county more than $23 million, they should join forces again and designate a significant portion of the money for economic development -- including finding a new tenant for the plant after Dell closes it in January.
Last week, in response to a request from Mayor Allen Joines, Dell wired the refund, which includes about $15.5 million for the city and about $7.9 million for the county, as well as about $2.8 million for the Millennium Fund and about $308,000 for the Forsyth County Development Corp. Dell got a discount of $66,277, about one-quarter of 1 percent, for repaying the money early.
By mid-week, ideas were flying about how the money might be used. "God knows, we haven't even put the money in the bank and let it cool down yet, so all of this is speculation," said Dave Plyler, the chairman of the county commissioners.
Plyler and Joines said they want to work together on ideas about using the money. But getting the commissioners' board and the council to do that may be difficult. At the commissioners' briefing Thursday, Commissioners Debra Conrad and Gloria Whisenhunt questioned why the city agreed to let Dell have the discount without consulting with their board. Joines told the Journal he consulted with Plyler before agreeing to the discount. The discount cost the county about $20,000, but interest on the money returned should easily recoup the discount by February, when the incentives refund had been due.
The board of commissioners isn't as progressive about spending on economic development as the council is. Thursday, commissioners asked the county staff to work on a draft resolution saying that the Dell refund would be returned to taxpayers. Commissioners have talked about doing that through a drop in the property tax rate or rebate.
But the amount would be negligible, and it wouldn't create jobs. It would be more productive to put the money back into economic development.
That's what Joines wants the city to do with its share. "I think what we need to use these monies for is to get jobs here to replace the ones we lost," he said.
Of the city's money, he suggests spending $6 million to repay special-obligation bonds the city issued to do site-preparation work for the plant. It should put $7 million into the City/County Utility Commission's economic development fund to replenish $7 million that the commission spent on buying land for the Dell project, he said.
The commission benefited from water and sewer fees that Dell has produced and will benefit from future development in the area, Joines said. Money from its economic-development fund is used jointly by the city and the county.
The city could use the remainder of its share, about $2.5 million, on economic-development efforts such as creating a small-business development fund and marketing the Dell plant, he said.
The council will likely take up the Dell refund next month, after three new members who won election Tuesday are sworn in. County commissioners briefly discussed the money at their briefing Thursday.
The commissioners should strongly consider paying half of any reasonable sum that the city chooses to put into the utility commission's economic-development fund. And they should also keep in mind that investing in economic development would reap longer-term benefits than a small and largely symbolic decrease in the property tax rate.
The product of cooperation between the city and county could be the creation of jobs to replace those that will be gone when the Dell operation is no more.
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