Question 2

[Charlotte Chamber]

How do we retain our nine Fortune 500 corporate headquarters and attract more?

[Carolyn Sly]

We have a huge traffic problem in this area. If we do not complete some type of beltway around Charlotte I would forecast that it would be difficult for companies to substantiate coming here due to logistics issues. For instance, if you wanted to put a business in an outlying county, but rely on operational support from Charlotte, it is a traffic nightmare.

[Ian Farmer]

Keep the city accessible, keep taxes down, have a workforce that is flexible and educated to be practical and not academic theorists.

Make the Fortune 500 corporates really understand there is a thriving community of entrepreneurs who are ex corporate and who can cost effectively service and support them and enrol our help in attracting them.

[Don]

intelligent business leaders take their companies where they can maximize profit to shareholders while achieving a quality personal life. Charlotte has been successful in attracting new businesses. Ask the existing business leaders what (other than further tax breaks) is critical to their staying in the area. Most likely answers are reduced costs, availability of talented staff, ease of travel.

Reduced Costs: utilities (Duke should be part of the package players), incentive for additional jobs (wage minimums, length of time the jobs must be kept here, etc.).

Staffing: working with present and prospective employers to identify skills needed or forecast then coordinate with local schools (NOT just colleges and universities, jr and sr high schools also) to ensure a course of study is available and communicated to students regarding future job prospects.

TRAVEL: The rod situation is getting worse, not better. Need for added light rail is critical and it needs to be done NOW, not later. Ask peole who have lived in cities with real light rail such as NY, Chicago, LA - it is simply critical to growth and movement of people. People who travel also know how critical the airport is to Charlotte's continued growth. The City should also work with the airport to create an airport hotel joined to the short term parking deck, space for people who are waiting for arriving passengers to tet a drink or go to CLEAN restrooms, continue adding to the parking decks both in the daily and longer term areas and put in people movers to the parking and STOP the buses as they are polluters, dangerous to pedestrians and increase traffic on already congested tight airport roads, and not a cost effective way to move large numbers of people over a lengthy period of time - covered people movers work well.

[Alyson Hilal]

Marketing!

Also, increase conventions at the Charlotte Convention Center to showcase the beautiful, temperate and clean city. ***Continue to appeal to the International Business that we already have a number of.

[Mike Collins]

I would focus on lowering taxes and getting the beltway built around Charlotte. It's not just tax incentives to the corporations, but lowering or at least freezing property and sales tax is just as or more important since a corporation is usually running from a tax heavy environment. But they are not going to move without knowing that their most important employees that are key to their success are going to transfer with them. Those employees do not want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire. Those employees may love their company, but they want to benefit also. They are not going to relocate just because their employer is getting a tax break. In most cases that will never trickle down to them.