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<br /> PARIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
<br /> August 5, 1993
<br />
<br />An informal meeting of the Paris Economic Development Corporation was
<br />held August 5, 1993, 9:00 P. M., at City Hall, City Council Chambers,
<br />Paris, Texas. Chairman Eric Clifford called the meeting to order with
<br />the following members present. Barney Bray, III, Phillip Cecil , and
<br />Curtis Fendley. Also present were members of the Chamber of Commerce,
<br />City Councilman Wayne Brown, City Councilman Jim Bell, City Manager,
<br />Michael E. Malone, City Attorney T. K. Haynes, and City Clerk, Mattie
<br />Cunningham.
<br />
<br /> Chairman Clifford, opened the meeting by telling those present it was
<br /> the consensus of the Directors, City Staff, and Council that further
<br /> guidance and information was needed to get the corporation off the
<br /> ground, and Mr. Shelton has agreed to come up and listen to our needs,
<br /> make a presentation, and come back with a proposal.
<br />
<br /> Chairman Clifford introduced Bill Shelton, CED, The Cornerstone Group,
<br /> 777 Taylor Street, Fort Worth, Texas.
<br />
<br /> Mr. Shelton said that now that Paris has the sales tax in place, he
<br /> wanted to talk about what Cornerstone can do to assist the Corporation,
<br /> and not talk a great deal about what Paris can be, because he did not
<br /> know what Paris can do. Mr. Shelton said that one of the things you
<br /> will see, as he makes his presentation, is whatever comes out of this
<br /> has to be a Paris solution, you can look at Longview, Sulphur Springs,
<br /> you can look at towns that has preceded you with the sales tax, and you
<br /> can get some ideas, but you are unique. Because of your history in
<br /> Economic Development, you are unique, and you should keep that
<br /> uniqueness as you develope the plans and process on how you are going
<br /> to do the economic development.
<br />
<br /> At this time Mr. Shelton presented a slide presentation:
<br />
<br />Mr. Shelton pointed out that the latest figures in the United States
<br />and Canada there was approximately 9 thousand Community. Economic
<br />Development Organization that the City will be competing wi'th that have
<br />similar type organizations, the bad news is that are a lot of them out
<br />there, the good news is if you talk to the professionals, the people
<br />who do site locations, locating business, there are not that many good
<br />companies, that probably 10% of the community organizations are really
<br />technical.
<br />
<br /> Mr. Shelton said the goal that you have to have in establishing this
<br /> new relationship, you have with the Economic Development Corporation is
<br /> to say - we want to be an effective program, we want to be one of those
<br /> 10% that has an effective Economic Development Program.
<br />
<br /> You have competition in particular in sales taxes, sales taxis not unique
<br /> in Texas. When we first passed the sales tax back in 1989, the State
<br /> Legislature did it and Senator Bill Ratliff was the sponsor of the
<br /> legislation. He was very proud of Texas, he thought that for one time
<br /> we were taking the initiative to do something that has not been done in
<br /> the United States. We did not have to be on the cutting edge of the
<br /> Economic Development. We stole most of the idea from the State of
<br /> Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. In 1989
<br /> when the legislature passed it, he was very happy to see us do it, and
<br /> in checking around, he found that Utah had done this a number of years
<br /> ago. What happened in Utah, they had a permissive one quarter sales
<br /> tax, and what happened to Utah can be a lesson to us in this state. You
<br /> had the cities that voted the one quarter sales, tax, you have the
<br /> cities that did not vote it, or it failed. What happened, the cities
<br /> that did not vote it lobbied the legislature to the fact that it is
<br /> unfair competition for those people to have that money, and for us not
<br /> to have the money, and you know what the legislature did in their
<br /> wisdom? They wiped out the ability to have the one quarter sales tax.
<br /> The reason to bring this to your attention is that now there are some
<br /> efforts now in this state for cities to say that it is unfair
<br /> competition. What we have now is. We have 84 cities what we call 4A
<br /> cities, 4B cities hold their election under the Old Arlington Stadium
<br /> Amendment. As you will recall, the stadium was built with sales tax that
<br /> was not legal at that time, and the voters of Arlington who voted the
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