The Cookeville Industrial Development Board will meet Wednesday to discuss incentive changes designed to attract more businesses.
Cookeville Industrial Development Board Chairman Bob Bell said the board currently offers PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) and TIF (Tax Increment Financing) incentives to attract businesses and boost economic development. Bell said the board is updating its incentive package to reflect the state laws that were slightly changed this year.
“Many industrial boards across the state are sort of broadening their incentive package, and we’ve talked to Mayor Porter and to the City Council members about it and think it’s a pretty good time to discuss that,” Bell said.
Bell said the changes will consist of widening the incentive package to include the healthcare and education industries. Bell said changing the incentive package will make Cookeville just as competitive as every other city in the state.
“We want to be offering roughly the same kind of incentives,” Bell said. “Again, we can be fairly selective here in Putnam County about the kind of industry we attract or we recruit.”
Bell said not every business will get the full incentive package from the board.
“It’s based on the number of jobs created and average wages, and a fairly complicated set of factors that vary from company to company based on what they are bringing to the county,” Bell said.
Bell said he expects changes to come over the span of a couple of meetings rather than taking drastic action in one meeting.
