Mecklenburg reviewing Time Warner Cable incentives agreements

Mecklenburg County officials are revisiting the agreements it has with Time Warner Cable to ensure the company doesn’t violate any of the terms of the incentives packages if it relocates or eliminates local jobs as a result of its proposed merger with Charter Communications.

Time Warner Cable has received three rounds of state and local incentives since 2002 as part of maintaining a large administrative office in Charlotte. The company, which employs 3,140 in the local market, told local employees Monday that some finance functions could be relocated to St. Louis, Denver and Stamford, Conn., after the deal.

It’s unknown how many jobs will be affected as a result of the Charter deal, but Mecklenburg County officials are “in communication with Time Warner,” said Peter Zeiler, the county’s economic development director.

“We’ve been dusting off the 5- and 10-year old agreements and kind of refamiliarizing ourselves in preparation of this,” Zeiler said.

Scott Pryzwansky, a Time Warner Cable spokesman, said it was too early to speculate on possible merger-related changes.

“We enjoy doing business in Charlotte,” he said, “and we have a great relationship with city and state leaders and expect that to continue.”

Officials sensed there may be some changes in Time Warner’s local employment footprint when its sale to Charter was first announced in May, Zeiler said. Usually when that kind of thing happens, he added, it “rings a bell for us.”

The N.C. Commerce Department said it is also “continually evaluating” the performance of a company that’s received state tax incentives.

According to Commerce Department data, Time Warner Cable in 2004 was promised $5.6 million in tax rebates if it created 350 jobs over 10 years. In 2008, the company agreed to create 200 jobs over nine years in exchange for $4.2 million in rebates. And in 2011, the company agreed to create 225 new positions over nine years in exchange for $2.9 million in rebates.

From 2011 until 2015, Time Warner Cable added more than 800 jobs, the vast majority in Mecklenburg County, said Pryzwansky, the Time Warner Cable spokesman.

The company has “well exceeded the number of jobs” they were required to bring to the county, Zeiler said, so any relocation or layoffs might not affect incentives deals.

Each of Time Warner Cable’s three phases covered different jobs and different investment amounts. Officials would have to learn which specific jobs would be transferred, whether they are covered by an agreement, which of those agreements covers them, where they are in the process and whether those eliminations or whether those transfers of jobs trigger any of the clawbacks, Zeiler said.

North Carolina officials build “clawback” provisions into incentives deals that allow them to regain taxpayer dollars in the event that the company fails to meet its obligations.

Still, officials will be watching closely to see whether Time Warner meets its obligations.

“We in essence wrote a fairly large check … in order to create these jobs,” said Mecklenburg County commissioner Bill James, a critic of incentives. “We don’t want to wake up and find ourselves in a Chiquita situation.”

Chiquita Brands International announced plans to move its headquarters and 320 jobs from Charlotte in January after having been lured to the city about three years prior by $22 million in state and local tax incentives if it agreed to stay in Charlotte for 10 years and create more than 400 jobs.

The company repaid Charlotte and Mecklenburg County about $500,000 each, and returned $1.5 million worth of economic incentive grants to the state.

This week, state lawmakers approved a funding cap on incentives awards of $20 million a year. The cap would be increased to $35 million for any year in which the state has a “high-yield” jobs deal where a company invests at least $500 million and adds at least 1,750 jobs.

New York-based Time Warner Cable is the Charlotte area’s dominant cable provider, with about 480,000 local customers.

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 6:38 PM with the headline "Mecklenburg reviewing Time Warner Cable incentives agreements."