Golden Triangle Development LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins remembers the atmosphere in Columbus as the city dealt with the tail end of the Great Recession in 2009.
“Things were tough, but people were still eating at Harvey’s,” Higgins told Columbus Rotary Club members in Tuesday’s Zoom meeting. “People were still going to Mi Hacienda. People were still going out to Proffitt’s Porch and having lunch even though the economy was bad.”
That year, the city suffered a $900,000 sales tax shortfall, according to Higgins. What about this year, with the Golden Triangle area still in the midst of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic?
“I think it’s going to be worse,” Higgins said.
Columbus, Starkville and West Point all make roughly 40 percent of their income from sales taxes, but with many businesses closed or limited and restaurants directed to shut their dining-room doors to customers, that source of money is scarcer.
That led Higgins to warn Tuesday that municipal governments might soon need to meet with banks and talk about restructuring payments on their current tax-increment financing bonds, which can help build certain improvements — such as roads and water/sewer infrastructure — for private developments and are repaid by sales and property tax generated there over time.
“I don’t like to use the word ‘default,’ but they’re likely not going to be able to make those bond payments because there’s not going to be the money there,” Higgins said.
He said cuts will likely be coming by the end of Fiscal Year 2020 on Sept. 30 in Columbus and Starkville, as both cities must make adjustments to make ends meet. According to previous Dispatch reporting, Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill estimated her city stands to lose out on $1.3 million of previously expected sales tax revenue in 2020.
Higgins noted that West Point, whose fiscal year ends June 30, should be alright for now but might need to make cuts to meet its budget for Fiscal Year 2021.
Special use taxes for prepared foods — which help fund recreation projects for Lowndes County and the city of Columbus, as well as general operations for the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau and LINK — will be significantly down, Higgins said.
Starkville increased its hotel and restaurant tax by 1 percent in May 2019 to help fund the construction of Cornerstone Park, but Higgins said funding the new recreation complex, estimated at between $18 million and $22 million, is “kind of a problem” at the moment.
But there is still optimism for local companies, Higgins stressed Tuesday. The Steel Dynamics and International Paper plants in Columbus remain open, and Paccar and Boeing Aurora in Columbus and Yokohama Tire in West Point reopened Monday.
“We think that’s a good thing,” Higgins said of the reopened plants, though he acknowledged it will “take them probably weeks to ramp back up.”
Higgins said the LINK, whose employees are currently working in their locked offices, has used videoconferencing technology to contact landowners, prepare options and get signed forms. In the past two weeks, Higgins said, the agency has over 4,000 acres of control in Oktibbeha and Clay counties for alternative energy projects.
But he’s well aware things may not stay as strong down the line.
“We know we’re going to take a hit,” Higgins said. “We just don’t know how big the hits are going to be. We’re trying to make sure that everybody’s as healthy and strong as they can be, but we know on the back side of this, there’s going to be some heavy cuts and things and impacts to people.”
Hospitals facing challenges
During Tuesday’s meeting, Lowndes County District 2 Supervisor Trip Hairston said Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle’s Intensive Care Unit was at 80 to 85 percent capacity before the pandemic; now it sits at just 20 to 25 percent full.
Higgins said he is cognizant the postponement of elective surgeries has greatly driven down demand at hospitals around the country.
The CARES Act, passed by Congress in late March, allocates $100 billion for hospitals and other health care providers, but even before the pandemic, rural hospitals were suffering. Pickens County Medical Center in Carrollton, Alabama, closed its doors March 6.
But the pandemic, Higgins said, has made him and others more aware of the challenges facing smaller hospitals in the U.S.
“When something like this happens, it sure makes you think, ‘Man, it sure would be good if that little hospital in that little town wasn’t closed,'” Higgins said. “I don’t know if that’ll make us re-look at that.”
Flight grounded
Before the pandemic, Higgins heard plenty of hopes that Golden Triangle Regional Airport would expand its selection of flights and add trips to locations west of Mississippi.
That won’t happen any time soon, Higgins knows.
“I just hope we keep what we got as far as service when this thing bounces back,” he said.
Higgins said he appreciates that the airport pays its own way, but he knows COVID-19 will “change what people do.”
“If they don’t have people flying, it cannot be good for their business,” Higgins said.
There’s still flying going on across the county at Columbus Air Force Base, where training is proceeding as normal. But only 50 percent of staff is manning the base, with A and B teams alternating days, Columbus Lowndes Chamber of Commerce President Lisa James said.
The Department of Defense has suspended all travel until June 30, and only personnel with DoD ID cards are currently allowed on the base.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 31 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
