Tennessee officials will reportedly supply the private company Oracle with more than $100 million in incentives.
This according to The Nashville Business Journal, which reported the news Friday.
“Oracle will benefit from more than $100 million of state-level incentives and related spending for its record setting tech campus on the Cumberland River’s East Bank waterfront,” the publication reported.
“Bob Rolfe, commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD), confirmed in an interview that the state’s investment will exceed the $100 million mark.”
The incentives, The Nashville Business Journal went on to say, include two highway underpasses that will connect to Oracle’s waterfront campus. Another incentive is one of the largest job grants in state history.
MarketWatch reported last month that Oracle intends to deliver 8,500 jobs and invest $1.2 billion in Nashville.
The Tennessee Star reported in January that Metro Nashville officials evaluated whether to spend $13.8 million in new infrastructure costs to allow Oracle to set up shop in Davidson County.
Metro Nashville At-Large Council Member Steve Glover said at the time that “the money basically was already committed.”
“The governor and the state are dumping a lot of [state] money in it. It will create more jobs,” Glover said at the time.
“Believe me, with the mess that we’re in financially we come out ahead on it. But I don’t understand why we are debating it so hard because we basically had the money that we have already approved. The basics were already done.”
ECD officials said at the time that they had not provided Oracle with any state incentives.
According to its Facebook page, Oracle is a cloud technology company that provides computing infrastructure and software.
The Nashville-based News Channel 5 reported last week that members of the Metro Nashville Council had approved the agreement, “the largest economic development deal in Tennessee’s history.” The vote, the station reported, was unanimous.
“Metro will reimburse Oracle half of the property tax revenue they generate over the next 25 years, or until the company’s $175 million investment is paid off. The other half of the new property tax base would benefit the city’s general operating fund,” the station reported.
“Council Member Zulfat Suara added an amendment to the resolution that would use generated tax revenue for affordable housing initiatives.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to chrisbutlerjournalist@gmail.com.
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