GREENVILLE, S.C. - Several area business leaders say Greenville County Council's failure to adopt a Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday could make the county unattractive to continued development.

"People and businesses don't want to be part of conflict, prejudice, disagreement, festering sores," said Hayne Hipp, chairman and CEO of Liberty Corp. "There's nothing positive that comes out of it."

A council committee failed to advance a resolution honoring the slain civil rights leader last week, even after Greenville native, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, spoke Tuesday to urge the county to "join the nation."

Council Chairwoman Phyllis Henderson says county government should not take the first steps in this debate. She said few businesses in Greenville County give employees off on MLK Day.

"If it's such an important issue in respect to African-American individuals, if you will, why aren't businesses doing it?" Henderson said.

BMW spokeswoman Bunny Richardson says the automaker has observed King's birthday as a paid holiday since "day one" to honor his contributions.

Leighton Cubbage, president of Ionosphere Inc., said the council was not in step with the nation's position on King Day.

"I don't think they're doing the right thing," he said. "When you don't (observe the holiday), it shows you're out of step. It makes us look like rednecks."

Hipp says the King Day position, along with the county's anti-gay resolution of seven years ago - which shrouded the 1996 Olympic torch in parts of the county as it made its way to Atlanta - will be looked at by some people as "confirmation of some of the prejudices that still exist" in Greenville County.

Officials say the holiday would cost the county about $134,000 in lost productivity.

Council Vice Chairman Scott Case said this past Tuesday that county allows workers to use a floating holiday for any day off they want, including to honor King.

"I think outside interest groups, especially those considered extremist like the NAACP and the Rainbow Coalition, trying to come in and tell employees they do not have the right to choose is absolutely contrary to what Dr. King taught," Case said last week.

Henderson has said King Day is not a big issue to the average county resident.

"Frankly, I am glad to live in a community that adheres to conservative family values," Henderson said in The Greenville News. "It's the kind of place where, if you want to live in a community like this, you can live in Greenville. If you want to live somewhere where the community doesn't adhere to those kind of values, you can go live there."

Henderson said last week she voted for the King holiday.

Hipp said the time has come for the county to recognize the holiday, which is observed by at least 35 of the state's 46 counties.

"It's a vote of support for equality and diversity," Hipp said. "It's supported by many of us in Greenville, black and white, conservative and liberal, old and young. It's an idea and position whose time has come, and it's the appropriate thing to do."

Information from: The Greenville News