Community Contribution to Georgetown Wallboard Plant
Part of the low cost structure of EXP’s American Gypsum wallboard plant near Georgetown SC results from a substantial community contribution. This contribution has been detailed in the local newspapers. In particular,
1) In an editorial entitled “Wallboard Economics: Modest public investment in Georgetown gypsum plant will net a nice return” on Aug 14, 2006, the Sun News of Myrtle Beach SC described the community’s contribution in the following terms:
“Some readers may misunderstand the public side of economic development -- government assistance to businesses that promise to create jobs. To many, this looks like corporate welfare. But there's a fine line between unwise government giveaways and measured public assistance that reaps big returns. In the case of the American Gypsum Wallboard plant under construction in Georgetown County, state and local government have stayed on the "good" side of that line. Santee Cooper helped lure the $125 million factory, now under construction, to the grounds of its Winyah generating station by making the requisite land available at low cost. The county offered limited tax incentives. And just last week, the Horry-Georgetown Technical College area commission voted to seek state help in building a 7,500-square-foot wallboard training building on the college's Georgetown campus. College leaders will seek a $500,000 grant from the S.C. Department of Commerce to pay for the building, in which the 100 lucky folks who get American Gypsum jobs will eventually be trained.
Why go to all that public expense for 100 jobs? For openers, those jobs will pay an average of $50,000 apiece. The payroll money that eventually circulates through the local economy will trigger further economic activity, increasing the wealth of a lot of folks not directly associated with the wallboard business. Moreover, county economic development officials expect the plant to trigger the creation of 200 additional jobs to supply the plant with needed materials and meet its service needs. Some of those jobs likely won't pay as well as jobs at the plant, but the folks who land them will be darned glad to have them.
Would American Gypsum have located the plant in Georgetown County if state and local government had offered it no inducements? Likely not. The plant needs to be close to a coal-fired electricity-generating station, as the primary raw material for wallboard is derived from the residue collected in smokestack scrubbers. But there are lots of other coal-fired plants around the Southeast, and the governments in those locations would offer inducements to attract so many good jobs. The wallboard factory has the potential to accelerate Georgetown County's economic revival and elevate many families into the middle class. The public investment necessary to leverage these gains was well spent.”
2) In an article published in the Sun News on Nov 25, 2006, Aliana Ramos provided the following additional detail (H. Neyle Wilson is president of Horry-Georgetown Technical College):
“....The new Center for Accelerated Technology will be about 7,500 square feet to house a multipurpose facility, including labs, offices and classrooms, Wilson said. The college should get word in December if it has received a $500,000 grant from the S.C. Department of Commerce to help build the site. Horry-Georgetown Technical College has allocated another $50,000 and the Center for Accelerated Technology Training will give about $150,000 to pay for classroom instructors and materials, Wilson said. In the future the multipurpose lab will be used to start a construction trade program that would include classes, such as roofing and electrical wiring, not currently offered at the college, Wilson said.”
The $500,000 grant from the SC Dept of Commerce was reported to be secured in an Aug 13, 2007 article by Jessica Foster in the Sun News.
