News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Cookeville Industrial Board approved SAIC for an one year extension for its job compliance agreement with the city.
Chairman Bob Bell said the company felt like they could not reach the 300 tech employee arrangement by June 2022.
“Given the stage of federal government contracts and that’s mainly what they do here in town is federal government contracts and those were slowing down last year during the pandemic,” Bell said. “And so, they said it is clear to us we are going to fall a little short.”
Bell said the requirement is a part of an incentive package with the city called a Payment In Lieu of Taxes. Bell said the agreement includes certain benchmarks for the company to gain tax breaks. Bell said the company was being proactive with the request and have met all other benchmarks.
“Typically when a company comes to town and is negotiating a site, and we are typically competing with two or three other cities somewhere in the southeast,” Bell said. “Each of those cities, in this case Cookeville, offers an incentive package. Part of that is helping with infrastructure and part of it is the kind of tax base incentive that says we want you to come.”
SAIC now has until June 2023 to achieve the number of needed employees. Bell said the extension is a common resolution, especially with the pandemic environment.
The extension now has to be approved by both the city and county governing bodies.
