Walhalla offers carrot to catch the rabbit

Walhalla City Council took a first step to offer tax incentives to business that, in turn, would take a chance on Walhalla.  Councilman Tjay Bagwell said an ordinance offering incentives passed on first reading during council’s regular December meeting.  The incentives, in the form of rebates paid back to the businesses, would be controlled by the city’s elected leaders.  Meaning, as explained by Bagwell, the council would decide which businesses would qualify.  Although the city undertook a downtown streetscape partly in the hope that the new appearance would help attract new business to fill up empty storefronts, Bagwell says the incentives would apply to new business anywhere within the corporate limits.  And he mentioned Bojangle’s and Zaxby’s as examples of restaurants that have agreed to build inside the corporate limits.