The council voted unanimously at Monday's council meeting to give the new Aubrey's restaurant more than a half million dollars in property tax breaks over the next ten years. The tax break comes in the form of a 10 year PILOT, Payment In Lieu of Taxes.

According to Loudon County Economic Development director, Jack Qualls, who engineered this debacle, the new restaurant will be making a 9.4 million dollar investment.

This marks the first time the city has given a tax break to a privately owned retail restaurant. I'm sure everyone is looking forward to a new restaurant but what about all the other restaurants that have to pay their full share.

I suppose Aikens is counting heavily of the good residents of the city to pass the sales tax hike to make up for the lost property taxes.