Despite different opinions, panel sends results to city commission

A unanimous Public Incentives Review Committee approved a final report Thursday on the city’s tax abatements in 2001. But there was far from unanimous agreement on what the report means.

Committee member Kirk McClure said his analysis of the report showed only six of 15 companies that received abatements last year kept their promises on investments and jobs in Lawrence.

“That’s an ‘F’ on anybody’s report card,” he said.

Other committee members, though, said the report was the first since the city’s tax abatement policy was revamped last year. It’s not fair to compare the companies’ old promises to new expectations, they said.

“I don’t know that we agree on the definition of compliance,” Mayor Sue Hack, another committee member, told McClure.

As a result, the report goes to the Lawrence City Commission without any recommendation on action to take against underperforming companies.

“I have a real problem saying that a company that’s making a $15 million payroll is defaulting on a relationship that wasn’t very clearly defined,” said committee member Jim Martin.

That vagueness should end with tax abatements granted in the future, officials said. Assistant City Manager David Corliss said that under the new policy, future abatement recipients would sign a “performance agreement” that spelled out consequences if the company fell short of its promises.

And even though they approved the report, committee members admitted it was less than perfect. Commissioner David Dunfield, a committee member, said he still had questions about wage levels reported by the companies that received abatements.

“We’re really not able to answer the question the commission has for us on this,” he said.

“This is a work in progress,” Hack said.

The report now goes to the city commission for approval, probably before the end of the month. And though individual members will be allowed to tack on their own comments to the report, Hack said she didn’t expect the commission to take additional action.

“Round one is done,” she said. “I don’t think future rounds will be quite this tough.”