Council backs FCDA resolution

RED BAY – At last Tuesday’s meeting, members of the Red Bay City Council agreed to pass a resolution in favor of taking steps to make sure money from the county’s severance tax is solely used by the Franklin County Development Authority for economic development in the area.
The resolution was passed at the request of Glen Vinson, who attended the meeting on behalf of the FCDA.
According to Vinson, the sand and gravel severance tax was first implemented in Franklin County as a way to provide funding for the FCDA since there was no other source of funding available at that time to pursue economic interests.
Vinson said even though the money was intended for the FCDA, the current Franklin County Commission has been using the money to pay the note on the Franklin County Industrial Park.
According to the resolution, “the Franklin County Commission recently kept a significant portion of the severance tax, disregarding precedent and violating the stated intent of the law and causing internal hardship on the FCDA hindering its efforts to effectively market industrial sites in the city of Red Bay.”
Vinson said the Franklin County Commission saw a loophole in the wording of the in the code section and decided to use part of the severance tax money themselves.
Vinson said the current wording states the money from the sand and gravel severance tax should be used for economic development but does not specifically list the FCDA as the intended beneficiary of the tax money.
“What [the Franklin County Commission] has decided to do will put us out of business in a year and a half,” Vinson told council members. “We’ve been working with Red Bay on your industrial park, but you can imagine where you’ll be in a year and a half if we’re out of business and you don’t have that help anymore.”
The resolution passed by the council basically states that the Red Bay City Council requests Sen. Roger Bedford and Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow to amend the Alabama Uniform Severance Tax Act to state that the money from the tax will be allocated exclusively to the FCDA, which would prevent any future use by the Franklin County Commission or anyone else.
Vinson said the FCDA would be asking each of the municipalities in Franklin County to pass similar resolutions.
“We’ve already talked to Roger and Johnny Mack and they are in support of the amendment, but we want to have the support of our city councils in the county as well before we move forward,” Vinson said.
Bedford said the intent of the tax was always for economic development and for the FCDA.
“It’s important that economic development be county-wide,” Bedford said. “To do this, you must have a sustainable economic development authority.
“We can’t ignore economic development because this is an important time for our county. Navistar is ramping up their operations and we’re hoping Franklin County can attract some of the suppliers. Red Bay is in a prime spot especially and we don’t want to miss out on those opportunities.”
Vinson said Red Bay’s passage of the resolution took them one step closer to making sure they receive the money intended for them so they can continue to serve Franklin County.
“We just want to get this specified and taken care of,” he said. “Obviously the economy has been slow, but we’re still getting hits on these buildings and properties we have throughout the county. We want to continue to pursue those economic interests and market our area.”