TNECD Announces New Projects, But Not Dollar Amount Of Taxpayer-Funded Incentives

Image Credit: Piedmont Lithium / Twitter

The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –

This week, Tennessee’s Funding Board is scheduled to approve incentives of more than $1 million to six different companies.

But the grant amounts, paid with public funds through the Department of Economic and Community Development’s FastTrack grant program, have not been announced publicly.

The TNECD announces new projects that will receive grants but will not publicly divulge the amount of incentives each project will receive when the project is announced.

Lindsey Tipton, Public Information Officer for the TNECD, explained that is because they are not legally required to divulge those million-dollar incentives when projects are announced.

When asked by The Center Square why the department announces projects that are pending but will not then tell the public how much those grants are, she said “Projects are announced when a company has made a commitment to make a capital investment and create new jobs in Tennessee, Announcements are typically made prior to a public meeting (such as State Funding Board or a local government meeting) when the existence of the project would be revealed at that meeting. Due to state contracting laws, the contracts are not finalized at the time of an announcement. State public records laws provide that the contracts themselves and the information contained in those contracts are not considered public records until the contracts are finalized.”

The projects and incentives are part of the same contract and would be finalized, and required to be announced, at the same time.

On Thursday, for example, the department announced a project in Etowah involving Piedmont Lithium created a new manufacturing facility. When asked about the grant involved with the project, however, Tipton would not divulge that amount even though a Funding Board agenda said that the project is set to receive $1.5 million from the state.

“Any grant assistance provided by TNECD will be posted to our department’s transparency website within 30 days of the announcement,” Tipton said.

Economists have studied and shown that economic incentive grants do not help state taxpayers but they do help politicians to receive more in political donations and help incumbents win elections by a larger margin.

A recent study also shows that, once one company receives a large incentive, others in the same business genre will expect the same into the future.

“What I would suggest to people is, in the absence of evidence that these programs work, they should assume they do not work,” said Gary Wagner, a professor of economics at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. “Flip the default.”

This month along, Bridgestone Americas received an $8 million incentive for its expansion in Morrison and Hankook Tire received $6 million for its expansion in Clarksville. Both companies already have a presence in the state and are simply expanding existing facilities.

About the Author: Jon Styf, The Center Square Staff Reporter – Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.

2 thoughts on “TNECD Announces New Projects, But Not Dollar Amount Of Taxpayer-Funded Incentives

  • September 8, 2022 at 4:54 am
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    Of course they are not to tell how these grants are nor how much it is going to cost tax payers so a lot of these politicians can gain the rewards and the tax payer gets the shaft!! Some of these companies may use the funds well and the majority are close to chapter 11 anyway and just use the money and then leave or go out of business?? Seen it many times!

    Reply
  • September 12, 2022 at 3:31 am
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    The MONEY-GO-ROUND

    VOTE JOHN GENTRY

    Reply

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