01:12:15 – Cost/Benefit Ratio – “EDGE guards cost/benefit ratio”. EDGE routinely approves tax incentives where the abated amount exceeds the projected tax revenue. Also, the cost/benefit ratio is an unreliable measure in many cases and often inflated with pre-development tax payments included in the projected tax revenue. Any ratio less than a 1.0 means that the projected tax abatement for the corporation is greater than the projected tax revenue. See EDGE data here – https://database.edgemem.com/pilots/
01:13:00 – ICED Loans – EDGE forgivable loan program for small business. Shelby County has a deficient number of establishments to power the local economy. Such EDGE programming supports increasing small business establishments. Massey said ICED loans have created $9M in economic impact since 2017. To put that in perspective, $9M in economic impact would translate into approximately $270,000 in City/County tax revenue 2017-24 or $39K per year. Not much tax revenue but a needed small business program.
01:16:45 – Community Builder PILOT – EDGE program to reinvigorate depressed parts of the City. This programming aligns with traditionally defined needed public economic development.
01:18:30 – PILOT Count – Massey says that EDGE only has 85 Active PILOTs. Massey is referring to PILOT “Projects” and not PILOT “Parcels”. Projects include multiple abated parcels. Massey said when parcel counts are being presented that is an “exaggeration”. That’s not true. Citing parcels with abatements is not an exaggeration but a different metric for counting abatement properties, as both the Trustee and Comptroller report list abated parcels and not projects. To that extent, the Comptroller report enables a statewide comparison with other TN municipalities of abated parcels but not projects. It is true that the abated parcel count is greater than the number of PILOT projects but the use of the parcel metric is not an exaggeration. A note about reports. The Shelby County Trustee report is derived by billings. The Comptroller report is self-reported by the organization receiving the PILOT benefit. The only entity that produces both a PILOT project and parcel report is the Taxpayer Justice Institute (TJI). The TJI project report list PILOT Projects with the number of abated parcels. The PILOT Detail report lists abated parcels. Both TJI reports are sourced from the annual Trustee PILOT report.
- REFERENCES: Comptroller Report (2024), Shelby County Trustee Report (2023), Taxpayer Justice Institute
01:20:30 – PILOT Performance – Here Massey is articulating a microeconomic analysis of EDGE performance based on internal EDGE standards. EDGE is a Shelby County macroeconomic policy endeavor and should only be measured from a macroeconomic standpoint. Here is a TJI macroeconomic analysis.
01:31:15 – PILOT Extensions, Wages, and Exclusions of Tax Revenue – EDGE itself does not have a PILOT extension program. But EDGE does offer in many cases a new PILOT once a PILOT expires. There are several examples but one would be Vantiva/Technicolor. The Collierville IDB also authored a new PILOT for FedEx WTC, which will result in a 35 yr County PILOT term. Eligible jobs for PILOTs, based on wages, is defined by EDGE internal policy and not external research. There are no exclusions of dedicated tax revenue for abatements (schools). 75% has just been set locally as the standard without regard to dedicated tax revenue.