Five Questions

>>Like other governments across the country, Lee County is making deep funding cuts to make up for massive losses in property tax revenues and other income. Unlike others, it has set aside a chunk of money to help grow some existing businesses and recruit new ones. In an effort to diversify the economic base, the Board of County Commissioners earmarked $25 million for an initiative dubbed FIRST (Financial Incentives for Recruiting Strategic Targets). “The purpose of diversification is to level out the economic cycle, so we don’t experience 10 percent unemployment when a better-diversified area might be experiencing 5 percent,” says Economic Development Director Jim Moore. “It stabilizes the tax base. You read about all the cuts in the state of Florida, Lee County and the cities, and that’s why: We’re dependent on the property tax and sales tax.”

1. What is the FIRST program?
The FIRST program is an incentive program and a marketing tool. The county commission set aside $25 million to bring high-value companies to Fort Myers and to help grow high-value companies that are already here expand. A high-value company is one that pays wages at 125 percent of the average Lee County wage, which is something under $40,000, and gets most of its revenues from outside Florida.

2. What kind of response have you had?
We’ve had a positive response, but we don’t expect the phone to ring off the hook. This puts us on the radar screen. When a company looks to expand or relocate, the two things it cares about most are cost and risk; to the extent that financial inducements can reduce cost and/or risk, it puts us ahead of the game. This gives us something that others don’t have for the most part, which is an additional ability to [give a company] an additional cash payment, either before, during or after they’ve met a set of commitments. We don’t just give the money. If they fail to meet the terms, there are claw-back provisions.