The Carter County Commission voted through a policy that could help the Carter County Industrial Board bring in both industrial and tourism companies to the county. Voting 24-0 during Monday’s meeting at the Carter County Courthouse, the commission approved a resolution that created an “inventive policy to attract and retain businesses in Carter County.”

The inclusion of tourism companies gives the policy a unique spin since the incentivizing of tourism businesses isn’t very common, and according to Jon Hartman, the Planning and Development Director for the City of Elizabethton, Carter County will be the only county to have such a policy in place.

“We had the state and the TVA economic development agencies both review the policy and give us feedback on it,” said Hartman “They both commented and said they hadn’t seen anybody give these kinds of incentives to tourism companies.”

The policy, which was created by Hartman using existing models similar to ones in Bristol and Johnson City, gives workforce incentives to companies creating ten or more qualifying jobs. According to the policy, “a workforce incentive award of $160 per qualified job shall be awarded for industrial companies and $53 per qualified job for tourism companies within Carter County.” To take advantage of 100 percent of the incentive awards a company must create 26 or more qualified jobs. Companies that create 16-25 jobs will get 95 percent of the awards while companies that generate 10-15 jobs will get 90 percent of the incentive.

The payout of these awards will come in the form of property tax abatements or reductions. So for example, an industrial company that creates 26 qualifying jobs will get a property tax reduction of roughly $4,160, which equates to $160 multiplied by 26, which was the number of jobs created in the example. For the workforce incentive to apply, the qualifying jobs must be created in no more than a five-year period.

For industrial companies within the Elizabethton city limits, an incentive award of $600 per job will be added while tourism companies will get an additional $147.

The policy, however, has a clause that states, “In no case shall an incentive decrease the amount of property taxes collected by more than 40 percent of taxes paid prior to the incentive being offered.”

Companies will also be awarded for investments in real property and personal property. For real property investments of more than five million dollars in which the company creates 25 or more qualifying jobs, the company will get a 100 percent reduction on property taxes assessed to the increased property value. The reduction will only be calculated on the increase in property value and not the total property tax accessed. The reductions would drop over the years with the reduction only being 10 percent in year ten. The capital incentives will adjust based on a company’s investment (more than five million or under five million) and the number of jobs being created (more than 25 or under 25).

Companies will also get incentive awards for investments that require the hiring of ten or more qualifying jobs and the investing of $500,000 in personal property or a minimal investment of $1 million in personal property.

The Elizabethton City Council along with the Elizabethton Industrial Development Board have already adopted a similar policy.