The economic recession has taken a toll on the heartbeats of towns and cities across America.

In the last two years, more than a million Americans lost their jobs and their livelihoods. Small business owners have had to close up shop, and major employers have had to tighten their purse strings.

The Twin Counties region has struggled, too, causing local leaders to recruit new businesses and support existing businesses.

Rocky Mount Councilman Reuben Blackwell said those efforts though will have a long-term effect only if everyone works together.

“The challenge to all elected officials is to be the harbingers of hope, and we can only do that if we come together and have a plan,” he said. “These people need to see some plans in place to get them from point A to point F, which is fully employed. We need to learn how to work together better because we are all serving the same people. We can’t do anything in isolation and expect to succeed.”

Leading the way

The Carolinas Gateway Partnership is on the front line of recruiting new businesses to the area. Since it was created in 1997, CEO John Gessaman said the partnership has helped create more than 8,000 jobs and more than $800 million in investment commitments.

“It is a competition to attract and keep jobs, so offering incentives has been crucial in securing new businesses,” Gessaman said.

Jonathan Morgan, an assistant professor with the University of North Carolina’s School of Government, said the three most commonly used incentives by local governments consist of zoning and permit assistance, infrastructure improvements and cash-grant incentives.

“Some argue incentives are a bad idea, and cities, counties and the state should not be doing this,” he said. “On the flip side though, in order to be competitive in this process of economic development, if competing jurisdictions are offering incentives, you have to, just to have a shot. It is just the way the game is played.”

Rocky Mount Councilman W.B. Bullock said incentives are a necessity in today’s cut-throat business environment.

“Even though I’m not real fond of them, I certainly support incentive packages when we have to,” he said. “When we offer cash incentives, we base them on job creation. Basically, we’ll offer a company $100,000 incentive to come here, but they’ve got to create X amount of jobs by a future date to collect on that. We certainly don’t give them cash money up front.”

Rocky Mount City Manager Steve Raper said the city has done this with several businesses recently as well as working with Nash County to help fund the Gateway Technology Center with $50,000 a year for 10 years.

Incentives in action

A prime example is the New Standard Corp., which announced in 2005 they would be moving into a 117,000-square-foot facility on the 3800 block of South Church Street. The building had been vacant for three years when the previous occupant, Fontaine Fifth Wheel, moved its operations to Mexico.

Gessaman said Rocky Mount and Nash County promised New Standard Corp. a maximum of $275,000 over five years as long as they met certain job creation and investment thresholds.

“They fell short of creating 200 jobs, but way exceeded the $10 million they needed to invest,” he said.

Because of this, Rocky Mount and Nash County each paid $158,125 to New Standard. Although the five-year period is expired, the company recently announced they plan to create another 30 full-time jobs by June 2013.

“The economic prosperity of the area is, obviously, a major concern for all of us, and if we are able to assist, we will look at offering incentives,” Raper said.

Another 2005 Nash County project was the Cheesecake Factory. Rocky Mount tied its incentives to energy consumption, promising $60,000 a year over five years. Raper said the company only met the consumption threshold in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The payment for 2010 isn’t due until later this year.

Nash County gave Cheesecake Factory land and a building along with $500,000 to finish the building up front. They also set thresholds for the company to meet in 2008 and 2012 for additional incentives. For a cash grant of $10,000 from the county, the company had to create 300 jobs and invest $12 million by 2008 then 500 jobs and $17 million in 2012.

“They did not meet the employment threshold, but have already exceeded the investment threshold set for them for 2012,” Gessaman said. “It is a pattern we are seeing where companies are investing more money on machinery and hiring less employees.”

Nash County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robbie Davis said governments take a lot into consideration when contemplating offering an incentive package.

“We look at each individual situation and look at what that potential industry may bring to us in terms of property tax and employment,” he said. “We need jobs brought to the county and need to continue building our tax base, so incentives are a trade-off we’ll look at.”

Gessaman said incentives have evolved over the years.

“What is interesting though is that, at one time, public infrastructure improvements were considered an incentive, but now they are givens. Now incentives have grown to include reduced or no-cost sites, buildings and cash grants,” he said.

Edgecombe County Manager Lorenzo Carmon said the county has prepared several packages in the last few years but hasn’t been able to lure any companies.

“It is not that we haven’t offered them, but companies have just chosen to locate in other places,” he said. “We’ve made some offers in exchange for them making the investment in the county, but they haven’t chosen us.”

Carmon said assisting with grant funding also helps to make the area competitive.

“We will do everything we can to be supportive,” he said. “Most state grants are based on having the local government be the applicant, so we try to jump in and help anybody we can.”

Edgecombe County Board of Commissioners Vice Chairman Charlie Harrell said having sites readily available to develop has also been key to bringing in new employers.

“We wouldn’t have QVC, Inc., if we didn’t have the Kingsboro area ready at the time,” he said. “If we hadn’t done our homework, had sites available and offered competitive incentive packages, they would have located somewhere else.”

Nash Commissioner Fred Belfield said he is rallying for incentives not just for big businesses, but for small ones, too.

“I’ve got one project where we are coming up with a plan for incentives and ways we can assist small businesses,” he said. “We are just beginning to work on that, but hopefully, by the end of the year, we will have something in place because most of the statistics I’ve seen show that small businesses nationally provide 80 percent of jobs here in America, and we can’t continue to ignore small businesses.”

Reinvesting

Redeveloping existing areas with public funds is another approach governments such as the Rocky Mount City Council has done. Councilman Andre Knight said he hopes that will be an example for private investors.

“If we are going to see our city grow, we have to reinvest in the area. We can’t just focus on one area, either,” he said. “We have to look at the city comprehensively. If we are going to sustain our community, first we are going to have to rebuild it, and we’ve started to do that with the inner city.”

Knight said redevelopment will have a broad impact on the area.

“We have areas that have been neglected for the last 40 or 50 years, but now we are creating a new landscape for private development and nonprofits to come in and create a stable community,” he said. “We spent $250,000 in code enforcement and demolition in the Beal Street area, but there has been rebuilding and stabilizing in that area. It can happen throughout the community, too.”

Harrell said working on all aspects of the area will influence the economic recovery.

“We’ve got to do everything we can to have good, livable communities,” he said. “We’ve got to have a trained work force ready to go to work. We need good sites ready to go when an industry is looking. We’ve got to have competitive incentive packages because we are competing with communities that are just as desperate for jobs as we are.”

He said uniting together is the first step to turning the economic corner.

“Job development is not one person or organization’s responsibility,” he said. “It is a whole community effort that requires very coordinated teamwork within the public and private sectors.”

Bullock said he believes hope is right on the horizon.

“If we could just land that one or two good-sized projects, it would be tremendously positive for the community,” he said. “It could happen in 30 days, six months, a year or two, but we’ll get it eventually. We’ve just got to be positive and keep pushing.”