Barcia, county officials work to promote Bay County job growth
Press Release - For Immediate Release
BAY CITY, Mich., January 12, 2017 - Bay County Executive Jim Barcia has a goal to increase the amount of jobs in Bay County, and that goal recently moved forward when Monitor Township and Bay County reached an agreement to extend the Monitor Township Downtown Development Authority for another 10 years.
“Maintaining the Monitor Township DDA was a top priority – the county needs to retain as well as increase the amount of well-paying jobs with good benefits which will allow our younger generations to stay in the county, buy homes and raise families here,” Barcia said.
The DDA is credited with bringing more than 1,400 jobs to Bay County by developing the Valley Center Technology Park, Industrial Park and Tech Plaza at US-10 and Mackinaw Road in Monitor Township.
Bill Bartlett, chairman of the Monitor Township DDA for 20 years, said he’s very pleased with the outcome of the agreement. “I’m certainly happy we’ve reached this agreement with the county to extend the DDA and keep it alive so the structure is in place there for the next big project,”Bartlett said.
“Conservatively, the payroll is $50 million every year –that money rolls out of the park and buys cars, buys houses, and puts kids inschool. Those are the exciting things,” said Bartlett. “Right now the park houses more than 1,400 jobs. It’s an economic engine.”
The Monitor Township Board of Trustees and the Bay County Board of Commissioners each met in November to vote on whether or not to sunset the DDA by the end of last year. Both boards voted to approve the new 10-year agreement.
With the DDA in danger of dissolving, the 30 business owners in the DDA’s district voluntarily agreed to a special assessment of 2 mills on the winter tax roll to keep the DDA alive, which means no loss of revenue or cost to the county and all other taxing entities.
The new agreement will allow hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue each year to flow back into Bay County. The DDA will maintain a small operating fund and capture tax funds only when there is a development project agreed upon by the DDA, the township and the county.
Assisting to facilitate the new agreement to retain the resources of the DDA marks the first step for Barcia leading Bay County forward in economic development.
“I give all the credit to the Board of Commissioners and the Board of Trustees for seeing the value of it,” said Barcia.
“I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Commissioners Lutz and Duranczyk for putting together the meeting between myself, the board and the township - that was where the first pieces of this agreement came together,” said Bartlett.
“This took getting the right people in the right room,”Bartlett said. “Jim’s win in the primary was the impetus to me for when this all started, and his understanding of what it meant if we let the DDA dissolve.This is truly is a great partnership between business and government to make things happen.”
“Many people worked very hard to reach this agreement and continue to move Bay County forward,” said Barcia. “I offer my thanks and gratitude to DDA Chairman Bill Bartlett, to the members of the Bay County Board of Commissioners, and to the new Monitor Township Supervisor Kenneth Malkin, as well as former Supervisor Gary Brandt and Treasurer Sue Pike.”
“It’s an ideal location,” Barcia said of the DDA district. “With the DDA intact, new businesses considering moving to Bay County will have the resources and infrastructure readily available to them. Job creation and increasing our tax base is a top priority for Bay County.”