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~~ ~ ~~ zo 10 County and Municipal Government in North Carolina are useful for economic development may be financed by project development (or tax increment) bonds, for which the primary security is tax proceeds on new private development generated because of the public investment $nanced by the bonds. All these forms of debt financing are detailed in Article 17. Interlocal Cooperation on Economic Development Many smaller, rural jurisdictions find it difficult to develop large-scale projects like industrial parks alone. When municipalities and counties collaborate on such ventures they can enjoy economies of scale and cost savings and pursue projects that otherwise might not be feasible. The General Assembly has enacted legislation to encourage and facilitate interlocal cooperation on economic development. G.S. 158 7.4 authorizes two or more units of local govern- ment to enter into a contract or agreement to share financing, expenditures, and revenues related to joint development projects. It specifically authorizes the sharing of property tax revenues generated from a joint industriaUcommercial park or site. Two recent examples illustrate how cities and counties might utilize this provision. The first is the Kerr-Tar Hub Project involving Franklin, Granville, Vance, and Warren counties. In December 2005, county officials signed an interlacal agreement to share the costs of developing a specialized industrial park on one site that will benefit alI four counties. The interlocal agreement stipulates how the counties will share costs and allocate revenues created by the industrial park. According to the agreement, the four counties will be equally represented on the board. of the newly created Kerr Tar Regional Economic Development Corporation, a nonprofit charged with developing and managing the first of four planned hub sites. The Kerr Tar Regional Council of Government spearheaded and helped facilitate this process. The second example is the North Mecklenburg Industrial Park being jointly developed by the mostly residen- tial towns of Cornelius, Davidson, and Huntersville in Mecklenburg County. In March 2005, the three towns signed an interlocal agreement that sets forth a process for joint ownership of the industrial park and a plan for revenue sharing. Organization for Economic Development A local economic development program_requires effective coordination and management. Conducting an effective pro- gram requires widespread community involvement on the one hand and concentrated executive control of a complex set of activities on the other. There is no single administrative structure in common use; rather counties and cities have turned to a variety of structures, either singly or collectively. The starting point for organizing economic development activities is the unit's governing board, which has the au- thority either to undertake directly, or to appoint one or more appropriate bodies to undertake on its behalf, the various activities discussed earlier. Some larger cities like Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, Wilmington, and Winston-Salem have economic development units and staff within the manager's office. Although a local government can rely on the governing board and in=house staff for large-scale and long-term economic development efforts, most counties and many cities rely on an appointed commission to do the work on their behalf. G.S. Chapter I58, Article 2, allows the governing board to appoint an economic development commission. Such a commission is a public agency, but once it is created and members are appointed, it may act with some independence from the government that created it. Advantages of such a commission include the opportunity to ensure that local business leaders have an active role on the commission through their membership and the possibility of setting such a commission up cooperatively with other jurisdictions to coordinate. efforts in one body. One disadvantage is that an economic development commission does not enjoy any authority to own real property and therefore cannot duectly undertake some of the incentive programs authorized to cities and counties by G.S. 158 7.i(b). Counties with economic development commissions include: Davidson, Gaston, Harnett, Orange, Robeson, Sampson, Stanly, Vance, Watauga, and Warren. Some counties and cities delegate their economic development acrivities to chambers of commerce, committees of 100, or other private nonprofit corporations, limiting the direct role of the public body to one of providing funding in some measure (and, in some cases, appointing some of the members of the nonprofit's board of directors). For example, the Alamance County Area Chamber of Commerce is the lead agency responsible for economic development in that county. Similarly, Durham County contracts with the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce to implement economic development for the county. The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce administers the Wake County Economic Development program on behalf of twelve municipalities in the county. Onslow County, the City of Jacksonville, and the local Committee of 100 provide funding to the Jacksonville-Onsiow Office of Economic Development to carry out development activities for both the city and county. The Carteret Economic Development Council is a nonprofit ® 2007 UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government. Do not duplicate.