City of Chattanooga Industrial Development Board members received a finance update on April 7 covering Volkswagen grant spend, the board’s NR14 account balance and related economic development program funds.

The presentation, given by Alan Wonyou of the City of Chattanooga finance department, said the board previously approved purchase of a compressor costing about $239,000 and that staff allocated roughly $5,053,000 from the remaining funds in the first memorandum of understanding (MOU). Wonyou said the first MOU is finished and the second MOU has an estimated remaining balance of about $215,000; he also said a separate local grant account still holds about $5,000,000 that has not been spent. "Overall, we are within budget with 99%," Wonyou said.

Wonyou told the board the NR14 fund—used for certain economic development activities—has a cash balance of about $2,300,000 available to spend and that total cash across the program is roughly $2,900,000. He said the tax-increment payment (TIP) program had no activity during the reporting period and that the usual April turnover of tax payments from city and county is expected to produce activity for the next report. On the e2i2 program, Wonyou said the board has spent about $40,000,000 to date and that $8,000,000 was ready to issue at the time of the presentation and has since been issued.

No vote or formal action was taken on the finance report; the presentation was provided for information and questions. Wonyou closed by asking whether members had questions; none were raised that resulted in board direction.

The board moved on after the informational report to two resolution items on the agenda.

Ending: The finance report will be revisited in the board’s July meeting, when staff expects updated TIP payment information and any subsequent activity in grant accounts.