{"id":9682,"date":"2014-07-23T04:14:24","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T08:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=9682"},"modified":"2014-07-23T05:10:00","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T09:10:00","slug":"brad-lofton-leaving-myrtle-beach-sc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/brad-lofton-leaving-myrtle-beach-sc.html","title":{"rendered":"Brad Lofton leaving Myrtle Beach, SC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n<\/a>\r\nLooks like Horry County, SC stuck to its\r\ninitial three-year offer, both for Lofton, and for millage\r\nto fund his development authority there.\r\nThere are things the\r\n\r\nnewly-renamed Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority<\/a>\r\ncould do to let sunshine turn Lofton’s local land legacy green.\r\n

\r\nJason M. Rodriguez and Amanda Kelley wrote for Myrtle Beach Online yesterday,\r\n\r\nBrad Lofton leaving Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\nMembership to the EDC increased earlier this year, but revenue from\r\nthe membership decreased by nearly $60,000, impacting the\r\norganization’s marketing services and more.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nLoton has had many projects succeed, and met some challenges during\r\nhis time in Horry County.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nEarlier this month Ohio-based Ithaca Gun Co. did not\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n reply to a\r\ncounty incentive offer to bring its gun manufacturing operations and\r\na glass company, along with 120 jobs, to Horry County — a\r\nproject Lofton, and others, championed after officials recruited gun\r\nmanufacturer PTR Industries to the area.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nLofton’s resignation comes as the EDC is working to figure out\r\nalternative funding since the agreement for an annual commitment of\r\n$1.3 million from the Horry County Council only goes through June\r\n30, 2015.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\nSo unlike the Lowndes County Commission, \r\nwhich gave<\/a> the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) 1 mil (about $3 million)<\/a> of annual tax revenue with no time limit,\r\nseven years ago<\/a>\r\nat their 24 July 2007 Regular Session<\/a>, Horry County, SC only signed up for three years\r\nfor that\r\nmillage Lofton asked it for in May 2011<\/a>.\r\nOf course, what the Lowndes County Commission gaveth, it could taketh back\r\nor modify.\r\nProbably we’re stuck with that\r\n\r\n $15 million balooning to $23.5 million<\/a> in bonds and other\r\ndebt obligations.\r\nBut see below for an idea about that.\r\n

\r\n2007 was also the year VLCIA sold some land to a private party\r\nwho planned to resell it at around 100% profit<\/a> to private prison company CCA, that VLCIA invited into the county.\r\nThe private prison contract expired 5 March 2012<\/a>, so we didn’t end up paying the $9 million in incentives Lofton promised CCA in 2009.\r\nOther things could change, too.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nAnyway, Gretchen found this news of Lofton’s latest move via google alert,\r\njust like she found\r\n\r\nnews of his move from here to Myrtle Beach back on 10 March 2011<\/a>,\r\nbefore his employer (VLCIA) knew.\r\nThe VDT eventually asked his then-employer, who\r\n\r\ngave a glowing review<\/a> just like his current one just did.\r\nThe VDT also asked Lofton a question and:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nLofton wanted to clarify that he was not leaving Valdosta because of\r\nthe Wiregrass Power LLC biomass facility and the controversy\r\nsurrounding the project.\r\n

\r\n“My move had absolutely nothing to do\r\nwith the biomass plant or any of the stresses involved with that\r\nproject,” said Lofton. “We’ve announced 17 new projects\r\nsince I began, with over 2,000 new jobs and almost $500 million in\r\neconomic development in the area, so I’m hoping that the biomass\r\nproject is not my legacy.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nWell, others<\/a> may have differing opinions on that<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nThe VDT also \r\nsuggested back then<\/a>:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nParameters on the types of industry would be a good place to start,\r\nfollowed by decisions on how all of that tax money the industrial\r\nauthority is now receiving should be spent.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThe newly-renamed Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority has changed\r\ncourse somewhat,\r\n\r\n although it continues to spiff up empty industrial parks\r\nmade out of all that land that those bonds bought.\r\nMaybe that last is Lofton’s legacy.\r\n

\r\nIndustrial parks were a fine new cutting-edge idea back in the 1950s\r\nwhen\r\n\r\nformer governor Meldrim Thompson helped found the Industrial Authority<\/a>.\r\n<\/a>\r\nThere could be better ideas now.\r\nAs the VDT said:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThey have snatched up acres and acres of property in recent years,\r\nbut to date, those properties remain empty.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\nHey, maybe VLCIA (or VLDA) could sell some of that land or use it as\r\ncollateral\r\n\r\nto finance rooftop or utility-scale solar projects<\/a>?\r\nMaybe even put some of those solar panels on that industrial park land, or around the airport?\r\nNow that would be a real legacy!\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Looks like Horry County, SC stuck to its initial three-year offer, both for Lofton, and for millage to fund his development authority there. There are things the newly-renamed Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority could do to let sunshine turn Lofton’s local land legacy green. Jason M. Rodriguez and Amanda Kelley wrote for Myrtle Beach Online yesterday, Brad […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,120,1113,14,19,72,24,178],"tags":[728,1747,714,8704,8701,7317,10,8709,4562,8702,1622,12,7,1247,4561,8714,2428,6,8749],"class_list":["post-9682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-biomass","category-cca","category-economy","category-history","category-incarceration","category-solar","category-vlcia","tag-bonds","tag-brad-lofton","tag-debt","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-green-bonds","tag-gretchen-quarterman","tag-history","tag-horry-county","tag-lake","tag-land","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-millage","tag-myrtle-beach","tag-solar","tag-south-carolina","tag-valdosta","tag-vlcia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-2wa","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9682"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9696,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9682\/revisions\/9696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}