Jackson Free Press

It's no secret that Jackson needs businesses inside the city limits to pay taxes and provide jobs and services. But at a City Council meeting earlier this week, council members debated whether the city is reaping enough economic benefits to make some business tax exemptions worthwhile.

At stake was a collection of tax exemptions for companies making improvements, adding equipment or expanding. Instead of paying the full amount of taxes on the value of the improvements, companies can apply for a partial tax abatement. That way, they can avoid paying up to 50 percent of what they would normally owe on the improvements to their businesses.

The goal of the abatements is to encourage businesses to stay and grow within the city limits, but some Council members said they did not have time to adequately consider granting the abatements before the year-end deadline.

Ward 7 Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon said Council members should examine the tax abatements in committee before the full council votes to see if the city is getting the benefits it expects. She said she was concerned that many of the 14 ad valorem tax exemptions the council voted on were going to large corporations, such as Saks Fifth Avenue.

Council President Frank Bluntson argued that without tax exemptions, businesses would be more likely to move outside the city to surrounding areas, such as Ridgeland, leaving behind vacant buildings.

"If we do what we have to do to keep businesses in the city of Jackson, we pay the price, but we also get the benefit of keeping them here," Bluntson said.

Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes, at what was probably his last meeting on the City Council, said Jackson needs abatements to keep businesses in the city, adding that Jackson almost lost Saks a few years ago. Still, he said the companies receiving tax abatements should demonstrate a commitment to the community, perhaps by helping with the city's summer jobs program.

Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. said the amount of the abatements depends on the cost of improvements the business makes. Some businesses regularly apply for the exemptions.

"You're going to see the same companies over and over, just about every year," he said.

Barrett-Simon said she would normally vote for the tax abatements, but voted against them this time due to a lack of information about how one of them, for Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation, had benefited the city in the past.

"I don't think that anybody has showed us that we're getting the benefit from these tax reductions," she said.

Johnson said that usually the council would get documentation about what percentage of the companies' employees are Jackson residents and whether they participate in the city's summer jobs program, but that information was not attached to the resolutions this time.

The council voted 5-1 to pass the tax exemptions, with Barrett-Simon voting against them, Ward 5 Councilman Charles Tillman abstaining and Ward 6 Councilman Tony Yarber voting against the Milwaukee Electric Tool exemption.