(The Center Square) – The Tennessee State Funding Board approved $6.8 million in FastTrack incentive grants Tuesday.
Comptroller Jason Mumpower questioned a $2 million grant to TruGreen, which is relocating its headquarters from Memphis to Franklin, just outside of Nashville. Company officials say the move will create 135 net jobs with an average hourly wage of $72.39.
“Technically, their headquarters are in Memphis, however, their jobs, those HQ jobs are spread out around the U.S. This is a consolidation of those HQ jobs,” said Allen Borden, deputy commissioner for the department. “And as for any project that we provide incentives to, these must be net new jobs to the state of Tennessee. We never, ever provide incentives for any project that is simply moving jobs from one county in our great state to another county in our great state.”
The department is focusing on headquarter jobs for a couple of different reasons, Borden said.
“Number one, mainly for the quality of the jobs that these HQs bring to our state and number two, that HQs, as you know, this is where the decisions get made for everything else,” Borden said.
The largest grant amount, $4 million, went to Schneider Electric, which plans to add 400 net jobs and make an $85 million investment in Wilson County, the Department of Economic and Community Development told the board. The average hourly wage for the jobs is $26.53.
The company’s U.S. headquarters is in Franklin.
Denso Manufacturing was awarded $1.8 million for an expansion in Athens that includes 200 net jobs with an average salary of $31.39 an hour and a $100 million investment. The project is an 879,000-square-foot expansion. The grant money would go for job training assistance.
“This will put the total employment between Blount County and McMinn County up over 4,000 employees in the state of Tennessee for Denso,” Borden said.
The FastTrack program has $165.7 million in uncommitted funds, bringing the percentage of committed funds to 73%, Jessica Johnson, the department’s assistant commissioner of administration and operations, told the board.