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Commission Pledges $8 Million To Help Lure ST Aerospace To Pensacola
March 7, 2014
The Escambia County Commission has voted to pledge $8 million in local option sales tax funds to help bring ST Aerospace to the Pensacola airport. The Singapore-based aerospace company that employees 1,300 in Mobile, plans to hire 300 in Pensacola.
The county will loan $3.2 million directly to the City of Pensacola for the project and add another $4.8 million in contributions.
District 5 Commissioner Steven Barry voted against the plan, express concerns over insufficient collateral from the city’s pledged Communications Service Tax. He said the city has already pledged too much of the tax, and the legislature may cut the tax during their current session.
“I’d don’t think the Communications Services Tax is secure enough,” Barry said. “I’d like to have a second revenue source that’s pledged.”
Pictured: Commissioner Steven Barry addresses ST Aerospace during a Thursday morning meeting.
Comments
12 Responses to “Commission Pledges $8 Million To Help Lure ST Aerospace To Pensacola”
Everyone is forgetting the most important question concerning elected officials in Pensacola….How does this effect the beach.
Nothing else in the county matters, especially anything north of 9 Mile Rd.
Isn’t that the philosophy of the County and City of Pensacola elected representation?
I find it odd that ST’s home office for this area is Mobile. We dump a lot of money into a project and all they have to say is –”sorry this isn’t working out the way we hoped” and walk away. The Mobile complex has longer run ways and the labor force that the mayor and 4 members of the BCC hope will come to pass are the retired air force personal in the Ft. walton area. I guess they never looked at what is to the west of Mobile for a labor force. Some of the movers and shakers are the same ones who were involved in the 4-H property deal– I guess that should tell everyone how this may play out. Mobile got hooked for a dock and then the ships pulled out and now Mobile has a high debt and a dock no one will use. I can only hope we will not be in the same fix. Maybe it’s like UWF buying a country club and fielding a football team, but have a cut in state money due to poor student performance.
Jeff, Jeff, Jeff……………
“The reasons this area is not viewed as positively as others around us are many and varied, but many of them can be laid directly at the feet of our elected representatives, past and present”
Key word here is “elected”. over and over again by us the voting citizens of Pensacola and Escambia.
We seem to have extremely short memories here (maybe it is the ECUA water?).
And we are famous for ignoring what OUR elected officials and we put them back in place to do more damage.
Time and again.
We the voter are to blame for whatever “reputaion” we have.
AW:
My initial comment was prefaced with “…this might be a great deal…”; however, the remainder of my post is valid.
The City of Pensacola does NOT represent this County taxpayer. It is part of the County, as is the airport. The airport should have issued bonds, the City should have committed real funding, not empty promises.
The reasons this area is not viewed as positively as others around us are many and varied, but many of them can be laid directly at the feet of our elected representatives, past and present.
The Mayor only seems to care about traveling on taxpayer dollars and having a good photo op, and we have our share of lemons on the County Commission. I am proud to say that Steven Barry is representing my interests rather than those whose palms are being greased with the continuing good ole boy shenanigans.
I do hope this venture succeeds and helps pull this region out of the 19th century mindset we’ve been laboring under for far too long–but kudos to anyone willing to cast an objective eye on pipe dreams and backroom backscratching.
BT….. no infrastructure, this is a bad deal for this many jobs and we’re the only ones with skin in the game . Sure hope this works out. It’s too bad Mr. Barry is the only one not looking at this thing through Rose colored glasses.
It always bothers me when the County goes in with the City on most anything.
The City shakes off the special projects into things like Maritime Park, which isn’t anything but a baseball stadium, and the residents end up paying for it.
Hopefully, there will be many more than 300 jobs.
Strange too how some projects seem to include the construction crews in their “number of jobs created” formula when those leave once their work is done.
Prepare to hear those who built or bought homes near the airport complain about the noise and activity.
Good move Mr. Barry, don’t want our funds to be used for fruitless endeavor, like the ?Industrial park? north on Highway 29, real good investment, has three ? occupants after all t hese years, what a waste of our money.
The city of Pensacola represents the entire Escambia/Santa Rosa metropolitan area. Our reputation compared to other gulf coast communities is not very good. It is easy to see why. There is not one positive comment on this site. You have to start somewhere, and I believe the ST project is a plus for future development. Business create business, that is why new car dealerships, pawn shops, retail stores, etc. cluster together. The maintenance jobs are not based on scheduled flights in and out of the airport, (the Pensacola Air Port is the busiest between New Orleans and Jacksonville). With a positive attitude and a good work force it will possibly create more jobs, and that is good, whether the employees are from Escambia, Santa Rosa or other surrounding areas, it will still help to develop a vibrate economy.
I’m assuming that between the city and the county, that $8 million will buy something besides 300 jobs. Is there an infrastructure investment that reverts back to the county when ST pulls out?
If so, there’s your collateral. If not, it’s a lot of money to buy jobs.
good try barry
Thank you Commissioner Barry.
While this might be a great deal for the region in the long run, the City of Pensacola has $1,000,000 sitting in a fund for economic development that they could have contributed to the project, thereby showing some good faith of their own.
The City of Pensacola wants somebody else to pay for everything, and I doubt our LOST fund will ever be fully reimbursed.
Thank you Mr. Barry for voting against this. If government regulations were eased and taxes were lowered new businesses may naturally be attracted here.