TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) -- It's something brought up during Tuesday's Tupelo City Council work session that -- if put into effect in a more broad sense -- could provide that extra incentive to attract new business to the All-America City.
It's called a tax abatement.
The Tupelo-based Hyperion Technology Group asked for the credit because renovating their West Jackson Street facility came with an almost $1 million price tag.
"It's just the tax on the [building] improvements. It's not school tax, it's not the tax on the original cost of the building," Ward 1 Councilman Markel Whittington said. "It's on the improvements. But they deserve that."
Hyperion also recently graduated from the Renasant Center for Ideas, where small business owners are shown the ins and outs of managing their own company.
Because of this company's success, including a recent $700,000 contract with the U.S. Army, councilmembers mulled over the possibility of granting a tax abatement to every small business that graduates from the Renasant Center for Ideas.
Ward 5 Councilman Jonny Davis said the city of Tupelo needs to tap into any kind of business development it can.
"This is certainly something that is a litmus test going forward for the city council and city administration to identify what we need to do as a council, to support businesses in the community," Davis said.
And in the long run, some say if Tupelo doesn't do it, another city will.
"Geoff [Carter] and Hyperion could have easily located in Oxford," Whittington. "They could have easily located in any other area, but they chose Tupelo, and I think we should step up to the plate and help them."
The city council is expected to take up the issue of changing the tax abatement policy at its next meeting.
The existing law says businesses can only apply for a tax abatement if they're located along a portion of South Gloster Street or the downtown area.
