How to (not) get a Walmart into county

Ginn, in response, suggested that Kathy Wilbanks (chairman of the county school board) and Hunter Bicknell (chairman of the board of commissioners) should find a way to give Walmart a site upon which to build a store to generate that tax income for the county and its school system, both of which have undergone significant budget challenges.

From a business standpoint, if Walmart were actually interested and the price of land cheap enough, dollars and sense wise, that might be a good investment. After all, don’t Georgia and Jackson County offer all kinds of tax incentives to attract business? And $3.9 million a year is an awfully attractive payoff.

Providing incentives to attract business and industry is a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t proposition. A government that offers incentives is criticized for giving tax breaks for big companies at the expense of Joe Taxpayer. One that offers no incentives is likely to be castigated for doing nothing to attract jobs and expand the tax base. Imagine the outcry if debt-ridden Jackson County were to give land to one of the wealthiest corporations in America as an incentive to build a store that, among other things, might drive other local stores out of business.

There’s another school of thought about economic development that suggests if a business is not willing to invest its fair share of taxes in the community and its schools, we’d be better off without it. Such an approach may stand well on principle, but it won’t lure many jobs into the county.

Counties, cities and chambers of commerce struggle to work between those two extremes, taking each prospect on its own merits and trying to balance the needs of the community against the cost and benefits that any new business would bring. It’s by no means an exact science and whatever approach a community takes is bound to attract criticism. But, no, Frank, no free land for Walmart.