The Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority is expected to operate a $735,700 budget with an equal amount of revenues and expenditures during the current fiscal year.
OCEDA President Jack Wallace unveiled the document to county supervisors last week after health issues delayed his work until after Oct. 1, the start of Fiscal Year 2014-2015.
The organization’s three primary sources of income — a 15 percent cut of Starkville’s total 2 percent food and beverage tax returns and Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park rent-sharing and lease agreements — are estimated to produce enough income to balance out OCEDA’s planned expenses.
Specifically, research park leases and utility reimbursements are expected to net OCEDA a combined $433,200 this fiscal year, while the food and beverage tax should bring in $257,000.
Officials are working diligently, Wallace told supervisors last week, to find new tenants as Mississippi State University’s National Strategic Planning and Analysis Research Center (nSPARC) will move out of its research park home next year and into a renovated building adjacent to the Mill at MSU development on Russell Street.
The budget’s 2-percent revenue estimate is an extremely conservative guess, he said, and OCEDA should have more funds to play with as the city’s returns are expected to continue growing this year.
General operations expenses, OCEDA’s largest line item, are budgeted at $186,300 in FY 2014-2015. The management contract between OCEDA and the Greater Starkville Development Partnership, which also pays a manager’s salary, constitutes a majority of the expense and is budgeted at $135,000. Insurance and legal fees combine for $44,000, and Wallace said professional expenses are expected due to contracts associated with the upcoming Golden Triangle Development LINK-backed industrial park.
Building maintenance and improvement projects at the research park are forecast to run OCEDA $105,000 this fiscal year. A number of window-related problems in the decades-old multi-tenant building need addressing and could push the cost estimate higher, he said.
Cornerstone Park, an under-utilized industrial park south of the Miss. Highway 12 and Miss. Highway 25 bypass, is still not expected to bring in any revenue in FY 2014-2015.
Power capacity issues cap what kind of projects economic developers can entice to the area, and no income is expected until investors acquire plots of land.
OCEDA will spend a combined $49,000 on the park this fiscal year, with Wallace’s organization paying a combined $43,400 on its loan interest and principle. The remaining $5,600 will go toward park maintenance and improvements.
Cornerstone is expected to become the home of Mississippi Highway Patrol’s Troop G once the Legislature appropriates funding for a new base of operations. Although OCEDA formally donated a parcel for the facility, MHP has yet to reveal any construction plans or a timetable.
Wallace first told The Dispatch last year that MSU would ask MHP to relocate off of the university-owned plot of land adjacent Miss. Highway 182.
In addition to serving as the area’s MHP base of operations, Troop G’s headquarters also provides residents with driver’s license renewals and firearm permits.
State lawmakers could approve the funding in next year’s legislative session.
Wallace thanked supervisors for their understanding of why the budget report was delayed.
“It seems OCH (Regional Medical Center) and another hospital in Alabama liked me a lot and wanted me to stay with them,” he joked to the board last week.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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