The West Point Development Authority has been on its own without city funding since 2005, but members say future growth needs to be spearheaded by an executive director – and they need money to make that happen.

“We can’t not be here,” said authority member Carter Brown.

What authority members call “loose ends” with Kia Motors’ location in West Point can alone justify the need for a development authority.

The authority toiled in obscurity and practical autonomy for years under the leadership of former chairman Drew Ferguson III. When Ferguson retired from the authority last year, former City Councilman Robert Young was hired as an executive director. He left the group in January.

That has left authority members, most of whom are new to the board, to run the authority in the midst of Kia completing its construction and starting production, suppliers doing the same and other industries and growth primed for the area. Even veterans on the development authority say the new focus makes their work a different animal from what it was when the group started.

“We’re all pretty new,” Chairman Pate Huguley said.

Revenues from Kia bonds have kept the authority afloat in recent years, but authority members say that money will run out and they really need someone to run the ship.

The authority has the ability, granted by the Georgia General Assembly, to collect up to 2 mills of property tax to fund itself. This has never been done, but before 2005, the city did give the authority an annual allocation, the last of which was $184,500.

A 2-mill allocation would give the authority less than that, $177,761 a year.

“That’s the minimum we need” (to fund the authority) Huguley said.

West Point collects 8 percent of its property taxes from agriculture, 35 percent from commercial development and 6 percent from industry. Forty-one percent of property taxes come from local homeowners. According to city estimates, the assessment on a $100,000 house would mean an extra $80 a year in taxes going to the authority.

It’s up to City Council to decide whether to let the authority collect the 2 mills.

“We could generate some money (to give the authority) and not do 2 mills,” City Manager Ed Moon said. “We will have to take a hard, early look at our budget.”

City budget negotiations begin in August; the city operates its financial plan on the calendar year.

Ideally, taxes collected by new growth a development director brings in will raise revenues, ease the tax burden on residents and businesses and eventually make the authority self-sufficient yet again.

“We support the vision of you being self-sufficient,” Mayor Drew Ferguson IV said.

The authority went to council Thursday night with a plan for hiring an executive director that could take some of the burden off the city. West Point already is a member of The Valley Partnership, a Columbus-based group made up of seven counties and two cities in Georgia and Alabama that works to attract business and development to the area.

“We work for you,” said Becca Hardin, executive vice president of economic development and one of two people the organization has dedicated to recruiting business and industry.

Hardin and Michael Gaymon , president of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, say their organizations could be more effective at recruiting if a third person – an economic development director – were based in West Point. The Valley Partnership and Columbus chamber have pledged to share part of the cost of an economic development director, including training, benefits and help with marketing the city.

“We want and need a professional and that’s not inexpensive,” Huguley said. “We want a hunter.”

An executive director would recruit new business, market the area and assist existing businesses. Huguley said J. Smith Lanier, based in West Point, has gone from 200 to 600 employees in recent years “without any help” from the development authority.

An executive director also would be asked to help promote the city’s tax allocation district development plan and other programs.

Without a pledge from West Point City Council for long-term funding, however, an executive director couldn’t be hired. Authority members say it would be impossible to recruit a quality director with no promise of long-term funding. Funds the authority has on hand are expected to run out in 2012.

“If we can’t get a commitment for after that, then I don’t know what we’ll do,” Brown said.