INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — County Commissioner Joe Flescher says Piper Aircraft must pay back some of the job-creation incentive money it received from the county as part of a 2008 agreement because it has not met payroll numbers projected in that agreement.
Piper is asking the county to let it keep all of more than $4 million it received because it says it has met other benchmarks included in the agreement, but Flescher said that is “not a fair question for Piper to bring up.”
“I was on the commission in 2008 and that agreement was a very tough sell,” he said. “It was made in challenging times and there was great debate about it across the county. People were talking about it everywhere and nobody was in the middle. People were very vehement – either very much for it or very much against it.
“I had to do a lot of appealing to get it through and one of the main arguments I relied on was the tough claw-back provisions – if Piper didn’t live up to its end, taxpayers would get their money back. That was one of the strongest deciding factors that I emphasized to everyone and I can’t see going back on that now.”
Under the 2008 agreement, Piper was supposed to invest a certain amount in capital improvements in its Vero plant, spend a specified amount on research and development that would aid the local economy and have 950 employees on its payroll by the end of 2011.
Piper admits it is approximately 230 employees short of that number, but says a poor economy and decrease in airplane sales worldwide it had no control over are responsible for the deficit.
“That agreement was made in tough times,” said Flescher, suggesting that Piper did not enter into the agreement without a sense of economic trends.
“I wish things had worked out better for Piper, and I understand they are having some difficulties after cancelling their jet program, but the county and citizens are also having hard times. We made a commitment to Piper that we kept and they made a commitment to us that they should keep.
“We got some strong words from Piper about how they would live up to agreement and even though there has been changes in ownership structure, our agreement was with the company and I trust the new Piper organization is ready to honor its commitments.
“I believe that if times were more robust and the jet program was still going forward, Piper would be glad to take more money from the county that we committed to under the agreement, so they should be willing to honor it in the other way as well.”
Flescher said letting Piper off the hook could jeopardize future job-creation incentive agreements in the county.
“If another company comes along and asks for money to create jobs, how are we going to convince the citizens that there are claw-back provisions to ensure they get what they are paying for if Piper doesn’t have to pay back what it owes?” Flescher said.
“As commissioners, we represent the taxpayers and we made a commitment to the taxpayers that Piper would create a certain number of jobs or pay back the money and we need to live up that obligation and Piper needs to live up to it.”
