Incentives: dissected

Pasco County
Pasco County has an identity problem in the race to hand out government incentives to growing or relocating businesses.

“No one outside of Tampa really knows where Pasco County is,” says Pasco County Economic Development Council President and CEO John Hagen.

Hagen hopes to address that challenge this year with a renewed sense of urgency. His source: Penny for Pasco, a one-cent sales tax with proceeds directed to schools and economic development. The tax was initially approved in 2004, and voters countywide approved it again in 2012 for another decade.