Economic Lack of Development

Last night at the Kissimmee City Commission meeting, our economic development warrior (EDW) was on the agenda to give a quarterly update. At first we were concerned that some of you might not have been able to stay awake through the meeting to make it to that part, but with the exciting return of Pot Bellied Pigs we were confident that this nail-biter of a meeting would hold your interest.

The EDW’s rambling journey started with discussion on the enterprise zone and how we have already given $30,000+ this year, not to attract new businesses, but just as a special thank you to those who are already in the zone. She also heralded that the economic development committee helped two daycares in the zone to get out of paying their property taxes. We have to ask the question, how does this benefit the city? Were the real revenue losses this past year truly because of Amendment 1 or were they from “Economic Development”?

Next we were enlightened on how the EDW gave incentives to a foreign company to locate here as part of a plastics cluster all in the name of creating 38 jobs which “are typically higher paying”. No mention of whether those jobs were filled by locals or what “typically higher paying” is defined as.

As we continued the game of cloak and dagger complete with secret code names for businesses that may or may not be coming to our area, we learned the exciting news that “Project Hammer” (yes that really is their code name) is being moved from out of the zone to the zone complete with an impact fee rebate with no new or additional jobs.

While the EDW refuses to give the commission the names of any of the companies that she feels confident will relocate here, the WayneWho staff has been able to do some investigative work and uncover what we believe is possibly one of our newest big players, Project Space. As you drive throughout Osceola, clustered on 192 is a huge corporation in appearance based on all of their satellite locations. This company, “Space for Lease” is catching on like weeds in an unmaintained lawn. It seems now that they have even rivaled the growth of the Amscot corporation. We can only hope that this new Space for Lease company will provide many high paying jobs.