By MIKE GEORGE and ANNIE GOELLER, Daily Journal of Johnson County staff writers
Practically any community near Greensburg’s announced Honda plant can use economic incentives, such as tax breaks, to attract a supplier and jobs.
What Johnson County needs, officials say, is a shipping corridor that connects industrial parks to the plant and a quality of life that’s second to none.
Johnson County mayors, planners and economic development leaders are considering those ideas in the face of a new plant that will create 2,000 jobs and a demand for parts in a rural community less than an hour’s drive away.
Since the type of vehicle that will be made in Greensburg hasn’t been announced, it is too early to know what local businesses could expand or new companies could relocate to Johnson County, said Cheryl Morphew, executive director of Johnson County Development Corp.
For now, Morphew said she will keep doing what she’s been doing to attract businesses: make sure the development corporation’s Web site is up to date and work to promote the area’s schools and affordable housing.
Both Greenwood Mayor Charles Henderson and Franklin Mayor Brenda Jones-Matthews said they plan to use tax abatements, or property tax breaks offered to companies that move in or expand, to attract parts suppliers and small machine shops that will want to work with Honda.
“One of the things we have to do is show that we are just as interested in attracting small businesses to Greenwood as big businesses,” Henderson said. “You have to show you’re looking out for the little guy as much as the Hondas.”
Both cities also have established tax increment financing districts to attract new business. In a tax increment financing district, property taxes that would normally go to schools, government or libraries go to roads, sewers and other improvement projects inside the district’s boundaries. Those improvements could attract more businesses.
The county also needs to have key infrastructure in place, including a shipping corridor between the plant and large cities, such as Greenwood, Henderson said.
Low interest bonds and work force development grants are also a way to help attract business, said Franklin city planner David Weir. But tax abatements, bonds and special tax districts are tools available to every community in the state, he admitted.
“We’re going to have to use everything we have in terms of incentives to get them here, and we’ll have to keep focusing on improving the quality of life in Johnson County to keep them,” Weir said.
Johnson County should make a good first impression, said Gregg Bechtold, a member of the Johnson County Development Corp. board of directors.
“Part of our job at the commission is selling the lifestyle here,” he said. “We have to make them see that we have good schools, affordable housing, nice parks and other things.
“We have to put on a good face.”
But before the corporation targets any other businesses, Morphew said she would like to partner with the current suppliers in the county.
Her plan is to wait for the companies to decide on a game plan before working with Honda on any potential contracts. She has not spoken with Honda officials and said it is unclear whether the local companies that supply the automaker would see a boom with the new plant.
The county and local companies have two years before the plant starts production to get potential contracts in order, she said.
Although the county was never in the running for the plant because of a lack of available land and a rail line, Honda officials know Johnson County is only an hour away. Morphew and the economic development group will continue to market the county’s schools and communities as they have in the past, she said.
Morphew said it is too early to discuss many issues, such as the potential for future companies and routes for future employees and suppliers to get to the plant.
The Honda plant will be a catalyst to build an improved road between I-74 and Greenwood’s warehouse district at the Precedent South Business Center, located along Graham Road south of Rocklane Road, Henderson said.
He said his plan is still to push for a new exit off Interstate 65 at Worthsville Road, which would be part of the path to connect to Interstate 74.
Plans are also under way to widen Graham Road, a route to Indianapolis, to five lanes.
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