Fort Mill Township is unusual because of the number of large businesses located in its immediate area - companies such as Springs Industries, Weyerhaeuser, and the industries we've featured in this column.

Some companies move here because they have roots in Fort Mill, but nearly all of them like Fort Mill Township because they appreciate the quality of life here. They think highly of the school system, the small-town atmosphere, and the fact that Fort Mill is nestled close to a major metropolitan area.

But there's even more enticement.

Virtually every company that is relatively new to the area is here because "the county and South Carolina made us a very sweet deal," according to these company representatives.

Economic incentives make industrial recruitment happen, and Fort Mill Township as well as all of York County offer competitive incentive packages that make companies such as Black & Decker (350 employees) and Ross Distribution (500 employees) move here. And township leaders like it that way.

Why? Residential growth alone does not support a county's infrastructure. It costs the Fort Mill school system more than $5,000 each year to educate one child. Fort Mill and Tega Cay also have to pay for police, fire and other services. Yet they all are competing for a small pool of revenue from residential property taxes. Property taxes on a typical household here are less than $2,000 yearly.

We need a mix of residential, commercial and industrial development to support our community and its high quality of life.

South Carolina offers a broad range of lucrative benefits to businesses willing to locate in our state. South Carolina offers one of the lowest corporate income tax rates in the Southeast, at 5 percent. There is no state-level property tax, nor taxes on inventory or intangibles.

The county-level property tax for manufacturing or industrial property is 10.5 percent. But, if the business makes an investment of at least $5 million, the county can reduce this under a fee-in-lieu agreement to as little as 6 percent - a 43 percent cut in property taxes for a company making such a sizable investment in the community.

South Carolina also offers a job tax credit for creating new jobs, a corporate headquarters credit that helps offset the cost of development and construction, a credit for building and infrastructure improvements, and job development credits that give the ability to retain some of the withheld payroll taxes.

York County also offers tax abatement in the millage rate for manufacturing investments, and the county might consider footing the bill for improvements to communication systems, utilities and roads for a company looking to move here.

These are not "free" credits to businesses. In every case, the available credit requires a minimum investment or a minimum number of jobs brought to or created in South Carolina. And it requires the company to provide a substantial benefit for the county.

Mark Farris, the director of the York County Economic Development Office, says, "We make certain that the benefits given to a company are less than the benefits a company brings to York County."

And York County will not actively recruit or give credits to a company that does not produce more benefit than businesses already located here, he says.

Charlotte commercial and industrial brokers, the S.C. Department of Commerce, the Charlotte Regional Partnership, and direct calls are the four primary resources for finding companies to relocate to York County. Once the recruitment process begins, the people in the York County Economic Development Office conduct an in-depth analysis of the business's potential benefits and costs. They calculate a report for the York County Council that essentially looks like a profit and loss statement, weighing the pros and cons of a potential industry recruitment deal.

When examining the effects, they assume a very conservative position, that a great deal of the potential benefit dollars will actually travel across the line into Charlotte. They not only look at all of the costs, they also determine the amount of investment, the number of new jobs, the new households, and even the number of children that might enter the Fort Mill school system. They look at the situation from every potential angle.

In the end, they calculate a ratio of benefit dollars to cost dollars. They have a minimum cutoff point of about 12 benefit dollars to every cost dollar. Below that, York County is not interested, Farris says. But it still needs to be a much better deal for a company to secure all of the credits. It is not unusual for the benefits to be 20 or 30 times greater than the cost.

York County maintains a tight rein on giving credits to companies seeking to locate in our area. We do not give our dollars and community away for free, Farris says. Farris clarifies the county's position well when he explains, "We need to plan for growth and development. If we do it appropriately, we will benefit and our children will benefit."

Bill Henson is a technical writer and marketing copywriter living in Rock Hill. You can reach him by e-mail at writer@cetlink.net.

Coming next week
Made in Fort Mill will explain how Lancaster County handles its economic development and give you the low-down on all the development heading that way in next week's Fort Mill Times.