Jackson Free Press

The long-dormant Valley Title Building, located at 315 Tombigbee St., will not have taxpayer-paid utility services—but it does have a new owner. However, officials from Hinds County, which owns the property, are mum on who the owner is or how the deal was struck.

"I can't say what the business is, because somebody from Madison County has probably got this room bugged, and they'll probably be trying to get them to come to Madison County," Hinds County Board President Robert Graham said May 10.

This week, District 5 Supervisor Kenneth Stokes asked if the new owner could take over paying for its utility expenses. However, since the new owners have not closed on the purchase, the county must continue paying any expenses. At Stokes' urging, the board voted to shut off the water in the building until the new owners take possession of it.

The 40,000-square-foot building, located at the intersection of Tombigbee and Congress streets, formerly housed Mississippi Valley Title Insurance. The county Board of Supervisors agreed to purchase the building for $2.5 million in 2007, using funds from a $30 million bond issue.

To sweeten the deal back then, supervisors attached $1.76 million in federal stimulus bonds as an incentive for buying the building. The tax-exempt bonds, officially called Recovery Zone Facility Bonds, function much like the Gulf Opportunity (GO) Zone Bonds that helped finance private development in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. Federal legislation allows private entities to issue these bonds, the sale of which then provides capital for development projects.

Graham also said that, contrary to popular belief, people and businesses are moving to the county--just not at a fast enough pace to keep up with companies that are leaving.

Because communities in surrounding counties "steal" away businesses headquartered in Hinds County with tactics such as offering free land, Graham said, Hinds officials remain tight-lipped about the county's economic-development projects.

"We don't use names; we use codes, and we have to use those particular codes in order to maintain secrecy as to who wants to move to Hinds County," Graham said, responding to a question at the gathering at Koinonia Coffee House.

Graham, who represents northeast Hinds County's District 1 on the board, said the keys to the county's business-development strategy are safety, education and recreation--whether people have something to do besides go out to eat, he said.

The supervisor touted budget-saving measures such as privatizing certain pieces of the Hinds-run Raymond Detention Center, including medical services. Negotiating better deals on pharmaceuticals and having more on-site medical staff instead of shuttling prisoners to and from the hospital saved the county $1.5 million, Graham said.

In October 2012, the board contracted with New Rochelle, N.Y.-based Quality Choice Correctional Healthcare to provide medical care for county inmates. QCCH replaced Reddix Medical Group, headed by Dr. Carl Reddix, which terminated its agreement with Hinds County citing a lack of county-provided nurses and non-medical staff at the jail making medical decisions. The county also privatized food services and is conducting a feasibility study to consider privatization of the jail's entire day-to-day to operation.