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County economic-development staff propose clearer community-benefit rules, living-wage test and tiered incentives
Summary
Economic Development staff recommended refining Durham—ounty's business recruitment policy to make MWBE/community-benefit goals explicit, consider a tiered award structure, simplify wage tests (e.g., a living-wage benchmark), permit practical employer flexibilities and create a special lane for transformative projects.
Durham County economic development officials presented proposed refinements to the county's business recruitment and incentives policy, saying the goal is to preserve competitive advantages while making community-benefit expectations more explicit and easier to administer.
"Awards must maintain community benefits," Director Andy Maricle said, pointing to a portfolio that the department says supports nearly $3 billion in projected private investment and thousands of jobs. Staff proposed explicitly incorporating a 25% MWBE goal into policy materials, simplifying reporting and considering a tiered incentives approach tied to award size so smaller projects face lighter administrative burdens.
Staff also recommended operational flexibilities — for example permitting the use of professional employer organizations for early-stage firms and replacing a complex market-compare wage test with a county-published living-wage threshold in order to reduce administrative time. Commissioners asked staff to follow up with more concrete examples (including how childcare or family-friendly workplace supports could be reflected) and to provide a digestible reporting dashboard for public transparency.
