Daytona Beach panel directs staff to simplify economic-incentive application for small businesses

Daytona Beach's Economic Development Advisory Board on Wednesday reviewed the city's economic incentive application and directed staff to simplify it for smaller local businesses while retaining the full form for large recruitment projects. Board members said the current application mirrors the State of Florida's form and contains technical fields that small companies may not be able to complete, creating barriers for hometown firms and early-stage expansions. Board members said the simplified track should target firms with roughly 10 to 50 full-time employees and focus on the core decision factors: whether the company is considering other locations and why it is interested in locating or expanding in Daytona Beach. Staff and board members agreed the larger, state-level application should remain available for big projects that already work with Team Volusia or the Florida Department of Commerce. During more than an hour of discussion, members raised specific fields that caused concern: NAICS industry codes, average analyzed wages by detailed occupation, multi-phase project reporting, requests for other incentives offered by competing jurisdictions, and mandatory E-Verify documentation. Several board members suggested replacing some technical inputs with simple dropdowns or links to tools such as O*NET so applicants could map occupations quickly without extensive manual calculations. Board members asked staff to keep certain items that matter for evaluating larger proposals, including capital-investment and ramp-up schedules, but to remove or reword questions that would unduly burden small firms. The panel also agreed to keep confidentiality language but to reassess any legal or statutory requirements that might force certain documentation for applicants with 25 or more employees. There was no formal vote. Staff said they would revise the application to: 1) add a clear statement of purpose explaining the city's grant is primarily a post-development reimbursement tied to property tax payments and that only projects meeting higher capital or job thresholds get an added year of support; 2) create a simplified two-question track for 10'50 FTE projects asking (a) whether other locations are being considered and (b) why the company prefers Daytona Beach; and 3) remove or gate technical fields (e.g., detailed NAICS/wage breakdowns, and E-Verify for applicants below statutory thresholds) behind the full application used for large projects. Staff said they would return a redrafted form at the next meeting or in May. Board members emphasized the application is an information-gathering tool and not by itself an award of incentives; any grant payout remains contingent on the city's adopted incentive policy and the developer's tax payments to Daytona Beach.