Assume for the moment that officials at Dell Inc. decide that it's not worth their trouble to quibble over the millions they leveraged from local government in negotiating for their now soon-to-close Forsyth County plant.
(The word "negotiations" is used lightly, as the process more closely resembled a schoolyard shakedown. "You want free land, infrastructure, tax breaks, cash and no public scrutiny? OK, just don't take our lunch money, too.")
Anyhow, let's pretend that Kip Thompson -- Dell's vice president for facilities who cowed state and local officials so thoroughly -- waltzes into town carrying a pair of oversized sweepstakes checks. Here, you can have all your incentives money back, he tells the locals.
Subtract $6 million or so to pay off city loans taken out to pay Dell in the first place. That leaves a $17.4 million windfall, albeit an unintended and unwanted one, for local governments: $9.5 million to the city and $7.9 for Forsyth County.
What to do with all that money?
"That's a question I was asked all weekend," said Pete Rodda, Forsyth County's tax assessor and a guy whose guess is worth more than most. "My answer is we have to get it first."
Set the rules
In a city with an annual budget of $371.4 million and a $393.4 million county budget, being repaid a few million dollars isn't a cure-all.
The Dell "rebate" lies somewhere between finding $20 in a coat pocket and winning kiss-my-feet money in the lottery.
Assuming that elected officials -- there's that word again -- treat any money that comes back from Dell as they would their own, they should start with this: Save some, spend some.
The saving part is easy.
Stash one-third of whatever comes back in a rainy-day fund to be tapped the next time the state or feds cram an unfunded mandate down local throats.
The spending is harder. You want to do something prudent with lasting value, an investment for the future.
The money was originally intended as economic development, so part of it should go back for that purpose.
"There's lots of ways to skin that cat," Rodda said. "It could be put in infrastructure or a new industrial park. Those would be investments, not incentives."
If we are committed to incentives -- and it sure sounds like we are -- use the money for small, local businesses that want to expand. Stay far away from big international companies with expensive lawyers.
Decisions, decisions
As with any unexpected windfall, there ought to be something fun. Mad money, as it were.
One idea floated already is to find a way to give some directly to the taxpayers. The trick would be figuring out how to slice that cake.
"There'd be a roadblock everywhere you turn on something like that," Rodda said.
We've already paid for a ballpark. How about a huge Rock-the-Block-style house warming? Except with good bands, rather than a Kiss knock-off.
The liberals among us would be right to want some of the money spent on the all-but-forgotten project to end homelessness. Conservatives would be right to want to use some to pay down debts already incurred, such as loans to bail out the ballpark or road-improvement bonds.
"All I know is that I'm going to keep an eye on the property-tax rate," Rodda said. "Those decisions are left to the elected officials to make."
Good luck making them. Better luck getting the money back.
ssexton@wsjournal.com
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