Smart Incentives and Technology - CDFA National Development Finance Summit 2014

1. Pre-Summit Workshop
Smart Incentives & Technology
Kent Gardner, Ph.D.
Chief Economist
Center for Governmental Research
Ellen Harpel
Founder
Smart Incentives

2. About CGR
• Independent, objective nonprofit (501(c)(3)) dedicated to
the public interest
• Consultant to government, business and nonprofit
leaders, providing decision support, policy analysis,
implementation guidance
• Active throughout NYS with additional engagements in
Ohio, Massachusetts, Ohio & New Jersey
• Key areas of focus: local government, education, human
services
• Creator of
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3. About Smart Incentives
• Business Development Advisors is an economic
development consulting firm
• Works with leaders at the local, state and national levels to
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increase business investment and job growth in their communities
• Founded 1999
• Smart Incentives helps communities make sound
decisions throughout the economic development
incentives process
• Due diligence and business case analysis for incentive projects
• Processes for monitoring compliance and evaluating effectiveness
• Launched 2013

4. Smart Incentives 4x4 Framework
Recipient
Deal
Compliance
Effec1veness
Data
and
analysis
to
enable
be7er
decision-­‐making
Greater
4
transparency
and
accountability

5. Analytics for Smart Incentives
• Incentives are part of a community’s financing toolkit
• Evaluating deals
• Monitoring the return on investment
• Quality data and analysis help you:
• Reduce risk
• Understand if an incentive deal can generate net benefits for your
community
• Refine incentive strategies
• Explain and build support for decisions
• Achieve better outcomes
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6. Incentives Basics
A working definition of incentives:
• Tools to influence business decisions in order to spur
the growth of companies and jobs in specific
locations
• Taxpayer-financed programs that support individual
businesses
Development finance:
• Fostering job creation and economic growth through
the use of tax-exempt and other public-private
partnership finance programs
Blurred lines between the two categories

7. Incentives Basics (2)
• Categories
• Direct business financing
• Indirect business financing
• Community-oriented
• Tax-related
• Types
• Bonds
• Grants
• Investments
• Loans
• Tax abatements, credits, deductions, exemptions
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8. Incentives Basics (3)
• Business Need
• Capital access
• Facility/site location
• Infrastructure
• Marketing
• Product/process improvement
• Regulatory climate
• Workforce
• Discretionary and non-discretionary
• Targeted (or not) by industry or geography
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9. Pursuing diverse community goals
• Economic growth
• Jobs
• Investment
• Downtown revitalization
• To support remaining business
• To provide jobs for center city residents
• Brownfield redevelopment
• Improved quality of life
• To support business retention
• To support business attraction
• Strengthen local fisc
• Taxable income
• Property value
• Taxable retail sales
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10. Economic goals also diverse
• Jobs for whom?
• Skilled v unskilled
• Under & unemployed v. new workers
• Is population growth a community good or a community evil?
• Business development
• Existing v. new
• Traded sector v. support infrastructure
• What are the “investment” goals?
• To support construction
• To add taxable property
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Analy1cal
tools
((pprroojjeecctt
oorriieennttaa1oonn))

11. Measurement is just as difficult
• Core metric: Jobs
• Payroll/Payroll per job adds quality dimension
• Skills needs will help discern if project is going to
support existing workforce or in-migrants
• Cleveland Foundation’s laundry: More cleaning being
done?
• What are your incentives buying?
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12. Can this deal generate net benefits for
your community?
• Project Attributes
• Fiscal Impact
• Economic Impact
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13. Project attributes (1)
• Project characteristics
• Number of jobs
• Type of jobs and wages
• Investment
• Location – where is the project and where will the benefits occur?
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14. Project attributes (2)
• Fit with economic development strategy
• Target industries
• Business types
• Coordination with state and regional allies
• Meets established program criteria
• Would this project harm existing businesses?
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15. Project attributes (3)
• Timeframe
• When will the project begin?
• When will investment and hiring occur?
• What is the expected lifespan?
• Likelihood of success
• Does it make sense?
• Other backers (banks, investors)
• What is the level of risk?
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16. Why devote effort to impact assessment?
• Heightened sensitivity in use of public dollars
• “Good Jobs for All” and similar efforts propose
restrictions in business tax and incentive structure
• Efforts to improve public/private partnerships
• Increasing skepticism about economic impact claims
• What can’t we measure?

17. Questions and discussion
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18. Case Study: Measuring economic &
fiscal impact
• Ohio Star Forge
announces
expansion in
Warren (N of
Youngstown)

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20. OSF: Key Facts
• Subsidiary of Daido Steel, multinational
steel firm headquartered in Japan
• 40,000 SF addition to support automotive
sector
• Current employment: 100
• Anticipated expansion: 26 jobs
• Cost of expansion: $20 million
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21. Why do we care? First, OSF will
spend more
• OSF will expand purchases of supplies
• steel
• energy
• food services
• office supplies
• janitorial services
• lots of other stuff

22. Suppliers Will Spend More
Buy
more
local
tomatoes
Replace
delivery
truck
Hire
new
employees

23. Adds new PERMANENT jobs in Warren
Paul,
Engineer
Katherine,
Clinical
Psychologist

25. And they’ll spend Paul’s paycheck

26. And they’ll spend Paul’s paycheck

27. OSF plus Paul & Katherine will
pay taxes
• Warren
• Income Tax
• Property Tax
• Mahoning County Property Tax
• Ohio
• Corporate Income Tax
• Personal Income Tax
• Sales Tax

28. Let’s review
• Direct impact: cash direct from Ohio Star Forge
• Payments to Pizza Joe’s for pizza bought by the company
• Salary to Paul
• Benefits purchased on Paul’s behalf
• Taxes to Warren, Mahoning County, State of Ohio
• Spillover
• Indirect: cash from OSF suppliers
– Payments to Joe’s suppliers
– Salaries to Joe’s employees
• Induced: cash from OSF employees
– Co-pay for Katherine’s OB/GYN services
– Baby food for Katherine Jr.
– Pizza from Joe

29. Economic Impact of Ohio Star Forge
• Permanent Jobs – Approximately 50
• Direct: 26 “New”
• Spillover: 22
– Indirect: 9
– Induced: 13
• Temporary Construction Jobs: Approximately 40
• Income
• Approximately $4.5M

30. 30

31. 31

38. Total
Employment
=
87
Direct
=
26
Indirect
=
9
Induced
=
13
Temporary
ConstrucCon
=
38
State
Labor
Income
=
$4.5
Million
Average
Salary
=
$51,800

40. Costs
to
State
and
Region
=
$221,000
Benefits
to
State
=
$2,000,000
Benefits
to
Region
=
$1,000,000
Benefits/Costs
=
13.6

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Takeaways
• Devote some resources to your analysis
• CDFA can help make the case
• The analysis has to be customized for your location
• Band together with others in your community and
region
• Pool your resources
• Look to other governmental departments
• You’ll never be “right” – need order of magnitude
estimate
• Strike a balance between detail and reasonableness
• Be prepared to communicate your decision and
rationale

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Takeaways (2)
• Beware of oversimplification/overly precise outputs –
judgment still needed
• Share your assumptions/the model’s assumptions
• Doesn’t have to be set in stone; tweak it over time

44. Reporting to stakeholders
• Who are your stakeholders?
• Board
• Developer
• Municipal officials
• Public
• Who needs to know what?
• How do you communicate?
• How honest should you be?
• How do you deal with the media?
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45. Compliance and Effectiveness
• Monitor compliance – project performance
• Evaluate effectiveness – policy objectives
• Reporting and policy feedback
• Transparency
• Accountability
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DID
this
incen+ve
deal
generate
net
benefits
for
your
community?

46. Compliance – performance
agreements
• Are performance requirements clearly defined?
• Are expectations laid out in a signed agreement?
• Only 56% of local governments report that a performance agreement
is required when providing business incentives
• Is the agreement timeframe tied to the ROI break-even
point?
• Is the company required to report on its progress in
meeting those requirements?
• Is there a way to verify reported information?
• Are policies in place to protect the community in the case
of non-performance?
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47. 47
Compliance – monitoring ROI
• Whose job is it?
• Are there resources available?
• Can information be verified?
• Require reporting as part of agreement
• Data sharing among agencies to verify key reporting variables
• How is data tracked?
• Timeframe
• Site visits and closeout interview at end of term
COLLECT THE DATA to figure out what is working and
what is not

48. Compliance - challenges
• Internal/process
• Access to information
• Coordinating among agencies/departments
• Definitions – e.g., what is a “new job”
• Ability to track long-term
• Outcomes
• What do you do when the project is not in compliance?
• What happens if the project changes?
– Economic environment
– Changes at the company
• Who enforces the agreement?
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49. Other challenges? Questions?
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50. Evaluating incentive programs for
effectiveness
• Did the incentive affect the choices businesses
made?
• Were existing businesses harmed by the incentive?
• Did the benefits outweigh the costs?
• Is the program meeting the community’s goals?
• How could it be improved?
• Are the community’s incentives working together
efficiently?
Source: Pew Charitable Trusts
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51. Business Incentives Initiative
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• Identify effective ways to manage and assess incentive policies and
practices
• Improve data collection and analysis
• Develop national standards and best practices that states can use to
report on economic development incentives
• Participating states: IN, MD, MI, OK, TN, VA

52. Evaluations should draw clear
conclusions based on measurable goals
• Metrics should:
• Reflect the goals of the incentive
• Consider available data
• Use clear and consistent definitions
• Metrics should emphasize strengthening the overall
economy
• Yes, fiscal impacts but not to the exclusion of economic measures
• Focus on outcomes that affect the well-being of state residents
• Consider whether incentives are reaching their target areas
Source: Pew Charitable Trusts
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Evaluating incentive programs to inform
policy choices
• Review your portfolio of incentive offerings
• Consider building reviews into the budget process (RI) or
legislative calendar (IN, MS)
• Define the goal of each incentive program clearly
• Use real data – not imputed or modeled figures
• Create a team with agency experience, analytical skills
and subject-matter expertise
• Collaborate with other agencies to collect data and share
analytics expertise.
• Leadership is critical. Provide a supportive environment,
training, resources and encouragement.

54. Questions?
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55. Contact Information
Ellen Harpel
President
Smart Incentives
571/212.3397
eharpel@businessdevelopmentadvisors.com
www.businessdevelopmentadvisors.com
ellen@smartincentives.org
http://www.smartincentives.org/
Twitter: @SmartIncentives
Kent Gardner, Ph.D.
Chief Economist
CGR
585/466.4273
kgardner@cgr.org
www.cgr.org
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