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Enterprise zone gets quick action
By DAN DeWITT BROOKSVILLE -- Rick Michael, former executive director of the county's Economic Development Commission, initiated the idea of an enterprise zone in Hernando County about two years ago. These zones are designed to encourage development in economically stagnant areas. It gives state tax breaks to businesses that expand in these areas and hire people who live there. The measure was successfully pushed in the state Legislature during the last session by state Sen. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, and Rep. David Russell, R-Brooksville. Eight months later, though, the county and city have not taken steps to secure the zone, which must be done by Dec. 31, said Larry Jennings, the county's growth and development director. "I'm disturbed to find out why it hasn't been enacted," Russell said. "We certainly don't want to see the hard work we put in not come to fruition." The matter will be discussed this week at both the Brooksville City Council and County Commission meetings. The original zone needed work primarily because of the boundaries of the zone in the proposal submitted to the Legislature. It included the county's airport industrial park and industrial property northwest of Brooksville, as well as the south part of the city and adjacent neighborhoods in the county. The state rejected the boundaries because they did not fit the law's requirements. The primary one is that 20 percent of the households in the zone must be below the federal poverty level. The county Planning Department has redrawn the boundaries -- which now include only the neighborhoods in and around southern Brooksville -- to satisfy this requirement. But several steps remain, according to a memo Jennings wrote to County Administrator Paul McIntosh. The county and city must come to an interlocal agreement. The commission must pass a resolution defining the boundaries and an ordinance creating the enterprise zone. And it must submit the boundaries, and a strategic revitalization plan, to the state Office of Trade, Tourism and Economic Development. Both Jennings and Bill Geiger, the city's community development director, said they believe this can be done before the Dec. 31 deadline. Jennings blamed the delay in part on the demise of the Economic Development Commission. "From my perspective, that slowed it down. They probably would have been the lead agency on this," he said. Now, Geiger said, that responsibility has fallen on the county, though he added that both the city and county had been busy because of increased growth in the past year. "I've met with them and provided as much information as I could to the county staff," Geiger said. "It's really up to the county to proceed and get this done."
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From today's Hernando Times |
