CC Minutes - 07/18/05 Mtg - Laserfiche WebLink

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tax base through job creation, job retention, stabilization of the base, and through the support for growth and for local businesses. He commented that six companies were looking at the enterprise zone. He predicted the City would lose those companies should the substitute motion be passed. Councilor Papé explained that he had not seconded the motion made by Councilor Ortiz because he thought anything that could be interpreted by the State as an inclination toward termination of the enterprise zone would be detrimental to the application and future applications. He fully supported Resolution 4849 and hoped it would be followed by a resolution to appoint two councilors or the Mayor and a councilor to meet with the Lane Board of County Commissioners to resolve the issues. Mayor Piercy called for a second round of comments. Councilor Bettman averred that the issue boiled down to the need to “uphold contracts” and that the City made a contract to apply under “certain circumstances” and the County agreed to it. She opined that people who did not “want to uphold and honor those contracts” called for more discussion. She felt that one did not go back and renegotiate the terms of a contract after one had the job. Councilor Bettman asked if Hynix would receive, under the retention standards, tax breaks based on both the existing jobs for which it had already received a tax incentive and the new jobs when it reapplied for a new factory in the enterprise zone and only created 50 jobs though it was a $2 billion investment. Denny Braud, of the Planning and Development Department replied that Hynix would have to increase its employment by 10 percent to be eligible for the program. He explained that given that the plant employed 900 people, it would have to generate at least 90 new jobs to meet the basic eligibility criteria. Councilor Bettman surmised that Hynix could receive tax credits for both existing and new jobs. She felt the company would be “double-dipping.” Mr. Braud underscored that credits would only be based on the new jobs created. Councilor Bettman responded that this was not her question. Continuing, Councilor Bettman averred that her motion did not eliminate the enterprise zone but rather endorsed a zone that she thought would be workable and a benefit to businesses. She did not think the community was in favor of “unlimited benefits” for businesses. She believed the community wanted assurance that tax dollars and public services would be protected through this process. She pointed out that the jobs being considered were limited to manufacturing jobs by the State. She did not think all of the economic development dollars should be channeled into this. She said the question was how much taxpayers wanted to pay per job. Councilor Taylor said an enterprise zone was not the only way to create jobs or attract businesses. She thought there were other ways to help businesses that did not need to be restricted to manufacturers. She opined that good companies go to communities for reasons other than tax breaks. Councilor Pryor pointed out that the motion on the table continued to try to terminate the enterprise zone, which he did not see as reaffirming its value. He suggested that the way to reaffirm such an incentive would be to figure out how to make it work. He said the council had come close to arriving at local standards and pointed out that presently the City had no such standards. He underscored that for whatever time period the enterprise zone was in effect with no standards, someone could apply and, whether the City picked up the application or not, the “non-standards” (i.e., State standards) would apply. He stressed the importance of MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 18, 2005 Page 15 Regular Session