How Many Million? Alcoa and the Stanly County Commissioners

While many people know that the Stanly County Commissioners are pursuing a government takeover of Alcoa’s Yadkin Project, they may not realize the excessive amount of tax dollars the county has spent on lawyers, lobbyists, PR firms and other consultants associated with the attempted takeover of our business.

Stanly County’s financial records indicate that it has already spent more than $3.1 million tax dollars on this effort, including $1.6 million last year alone.  Stanly County has spent $349,360 in the first two months of 2010 and is on pace to spend more than $2 million this year.

At the same time, the county has eliminated 12 jobs and cut spending on education, seniors and other vital services due to the tight economy.  Imagine what Stanly County schools could do with an extra $3 million … 

As the largest taxpayer in Stanly County, Alcoa is concerned that a handful of people are driving the county’s spending.  Through this campaign, we want to start a dialogue about how the county commissioners are spending our tax money and how it should be spending that tax money.  Does the county’s spending match the priorities of its residents?  That’s a question we’ll be asking in newspaper ads, billboards and other communications, beginning this week.

When the county manager submitted the 2009-2010 budget, he said “We must invest in effective economic development strategies to grow our tax base…”  But the county budget doesn’t reflect those priorities.  It includes $532,000 for economic development efforts – less than 1/3 what the county spent last year trying to take Alcoa’s property.

To learn more about this campaign, visit www.HowManyMillion.com.