IS IT TRUE May 31, 2012
IS IT TRUE Mayor Winnecke and GAGE proudly announced the expansion plans of a business that has had a place in the Evansville community for many years into a market that is local, that is well understood, and that has skilled workers available to carry out the tasks required for success?…that providing assistance to Whayne Supply or companies like Whayne Supply are an exercise in the fundamentals of economic development?…that this expansion will take 4 years and will add 50 jobs with an average wage of over $20 per hour?…that the bulk of the financial package offered by the City of Evansville are in tax abatements that cost no new money with some investments in the training of the local workforce?…that the bulk of the investment will be made by Whayne Supply as it should be and that the City County Observer supports Whayne Supply in their excellent business decision and congratulates the public officials who played their small role in greasing the skids to get this done?…that deals like this are prudent, practical, and will work for Evansville?
IS IT TRUE that Mayor Winnecke and GAGE should look at every deal as how it stacks up to this Whayne Supply deal including a legacy deal or two that Mayor Winnecke inherited as a result of the final hour antics and contracts of the Weinzapfel Administration?…that just because Mayor Weinzapfel never learned from his mistakes is no reason for Mayor Winnecke not to learn a lesson from the recent past regarding the abject failures of the City of Evansville and GAGE to VET the Earthcare Energy deal?…that Mayor Winnecke, the Evansville City Council, and GAGE have a golden opportunity that was left on their doorstep by Mayor Weinzapfel to prove that they really do have the ability and will to properly VET a project before writing checks or making loan advances as they did with Earthcare Energy?…the project that we speak of is the Johnson Controls project that was signed off on and announced in the last week of the Weinzapfel Administration?
IS IT TRUE that we must remind our readers that the Weinzapfel Administration is the group whose failures to VET treated the City of Evansville to the Homestead Tax Grab, the Barnett pay scandal, the Browning Hotel failure, the downtown Convention Hotel failure part 2, the McCurdy debacle, and a host of other projects that were characterized by the Weinzapfel Administration’s signature mode of operation READY, FIRE, AIM?…that the Winnecke Administration really did follow the Weinzapfel model with Earthcare but should take this one opportunity to prove their worthiness and VET the daylights out of the Johnson Controls deal before authorizing it to go forward?
IS IT TRUE that there is still not a ten year plan for the City of Evansville?…that going forward with a host of multi-million dollar public works projects without even attempting to understand the big picture is not only foolish, it is poor public policy?…that no projects should be started until a ten year plan is in place that prioritizes the needs of this community?…that two of the projects that are necessary to even profess to be a city that provides vital services are the Combined Sewer Overflow ($500 Million+) solution and the Cast Iron Water Pipe Replacements ($450 Million)?…that even the most mentally challenged among us should be able to prioritize basic services over temples to sport and projects like the Johnson Controls proposal that has very limited potential to make Evansville a better place to live?…that a great first VETTING step for the Winnecke Administration to take would be to define what Evansville NEEDS, define what Evansville WANTS, and prioritize these things based on our capacity to pay for these things?…that we call upon the Mayor to freeze capital expenditures until a great plan is in place and to start today with the resolve to VET, VET , VET, and think things through?…it is time to obliterate the failures of the past and move forward in a practical way that will work?
How much will the Johnson Control project costs the taxpayers?
I heard between $68,00 to $80,000 million dollars.
It is a $51 Million base plus costs of funds that raise the cost to the taxpayers to $80 Million. It will supposedly save well under $1 Million and that is quite suspect as 45% of is not even verifiable. That is all before change orders and extras that always seem to add allot.
Even Al Lindsey will recognize this is a really dumb project for the City.
The difference between meat and potatos and pie in the sky.
With regard to the first paragraph of today’s Is It True, which ends with “… that deals like this are prudent, practical, and will work for Evansville,” I am happy to see that the CCO editor finds the Whayne project a positive rather than a negative for Evansville.
In a recent edition of Is It True, the editor took the federal Economic Development Administration to task, even suggesting, if I remember correctly, that phasing out that federal bureau might be a good thing because of all EDA’s supposed transgressions in the economic development arena. All I can say to that is the Wayne Supply deal is boiler plate EDA formula, so far as I know from listening to my dad who worked there as a co-chairman from 1962 through 1979.
Yes, there are inumerable examples of the EDA straying from its original economic development policies especially during the Nixon and Carter years, and apparently forward. But a good captain can correct course rather than scuttle the ship and jump overboard. Same goes for Winnecke and GAGE, and I hope SealCorp and Wayne Supply are examples of course correction.
This is finally a step in the right direction..investing in sound companies and in line with EDA.
soon2b–you are correct.
I think that the CCO staff and it’s readers are hoping that GAGE is beginning to change course.
Also, I think it was mighty big of the CCO to give credit to GAGE for a job well done!
I will believe that GAGE is setting a new course when I see that they have replaced the captain. Earthcare did it for me. I can have no confidence with that lady at the helm.
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Why has it become commonplace or even applauded for local governments to show favoritism toward one business over another through tax abatements? Sure, it will have a benefit for that company and the community to lower the taxes of a business to allow it to expand, which on the surface of it seems like a GREAT idea, but so does patching up a bullet wound after you just inflicted it. Why not just lower everyone’s taxes, slash local government to its bare essentials, i.e. roads, parks and municipal building maintenance, and let the market sort everything else out?
Government should just be there not to feed egos or union buddies or whatever other groups who come to feed at the trough. It should be there to provide a level, fair playing field, law and order, contract enforcement, and basic services which allow the smooth operation of private enterprise. The minute we get into the habit of using taxes as a bargaining chip to promote certain businesses over others, you open the door to nepotism.
Why only reward those companies big enough to be in a position to expand and offer more jobs? Wouldn’t it stand to reason that any company, be it mom and pop or large in size, should be allowed to work on an even playing field and keep more of their own money? Isn’t it true that in such a scenario, the city would likely create even more than just 50 jobs by leaving the capital in the hands of those who created it in the first place?
It’s called investing in the future, Brad. The tax breaks don’t last forever. The tax rate is phased in over a specified time.
The reason it’s an investment for our coummunity, rather than a gift to the corporation, is that Wayne could pull up tent and move to another town that offered a better deal where Wayne could expand more cheaply. Where would that leave us? Another empty building, the loss of existing jobs, and lost opportunity for the 50 new jobs.
It’s not a gift to “union buddies or other groups who come to feed at the trough” as you say. It’s an investment in Evansville’s economic future.
Again, you need to explain to me how simply confining government to its set boundaries and lowering everyone’s taxes across the board to competitive rates is not preferable to this preferential treatment…
I acknowledged that this will have short term benefits, as lower taxes always will, but it’s ultimately at the expense of equality and fairness to ALL Evansville businesses. Why not just make lower taxes the default policy and restrain government?
Soon2B and Brad:
Nothing has changed since this 1998 Time Magazine expose’ on corporate welfare. Federal, State, and Local governments are still picking and choosing the winners in business.
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/time/1998/11/02/corp.welfare.html
It is a radical idea, but I still maintain that the only way to correct this and get the government out of the market place is to pass a legislative prohibition against the use of local property tax dollars for economic development incentive packages.
We see reports in the media all the time about how city’s infrastructures are failing and will need expensive upgrades. Lets focus our attention and resources in that area, as it benefits the most people for the tax dollar spent.
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ONB is the poster-boy for bad incentive deals. All they did was move from one Main St. address to another. No new jobs were on the table. Drill down into it as deeply as you possibly can and then tell me what the local taxpayers gained for their Millions. Ditto Vectren.
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But ONB and Vectren can always be counted on to provide a cushy job once politians can no longer be elected. They reap what they sow, they just don’t use their own seed.
Soon,
I understand your point but I also understand Brad’s as well. When we came to Evansville and started our small business we hired 2, then 3, then 4 employees. Not once did we request or were offered tax abatements, training, or anything else. I guess you have to be a big company to get big money or to be welcome in town. However I have always heard that small businesses keep the economy afloat.
I get what y’all are saying, I really do. My wife and I owned and operated a business for 10 years here in Evansville, and employed up to 19 people, and never asked for a dime from any government agency. But we didn’t pay $20 an hour either. And we were never capable of expanding to employ 50 new workers full time with benefits.
It’s not a matter of being welcome, it’s a matter of being missed if you decide to pick up and move somewhere else. If not, no incentive dangled for you. That, and you probably weren’t unionized, so you didn’t have someone lobbying on your behalf. Little things like that.
Good for you in having a small business. THAT is where most jobs come from in the USA. YOU are important. Folks keep voting in the same people, and you will get the same results. Unfortunately, newer folks with great ideas may not ‘get to run’ and that is not good. Small business people have to get past a lot of hurdles, get past the nuts in life, get past situations that you walk from it shaking your head. Applause to the small business owner…..I once drove all the way from one side of the town, from the accountant’s office, to the other to hand deliver someone’s W2’s in time who worked for me. I made that effort, one guy I had done some work with tried to give me mine a month later of what was the date by law. He was even wanting it to be longer being 2 months behind. Everyone has to get past something. We need some organization to reach out to the smaller businesses and see what help they may need…..we live in a smaller town, and sometimes the vary programs found elsewhere don’t get to this place. Applause to the Small Business Owners. They are what is leading America in Payroll.
after perusing posts on this venerable site for a month or so now, one common, painful point keeps popping up. you t toppers have completely, utterly, trashed this state in 2 short years. your mothers must be very proud!! from that lying cuckold [ for you right wingers, it’s toward the front of the dictionary…dict…oh never mind] of a governor stashing a half a billion, to you third stringers in town here scratcing around for nickels, in 2 short years you’ve made us #1 in pollution, #2 in child rapes, and #3 in general trashiness. yeah, your still trailing mississippi in those last 2 catagories of the t bag triple crown, but have faith, you’ll get there.
Where DO you get your stats? cuckold? dict? t-bag? what’s on YOUR mind?
here mook, go get yourself a copy of the easter sunday, EASTER SUNDAY, for gods sake, copy of the local paper and find somebody to read it to you. the teanut inflicted filth and trash on one state in that one single issue is the stuff of literary legend. yeah, they put it all in the EASTER SUNDAY copy. figured all you nuts were praying for somebody to paint your parks, fix your bridges, rid your eateries of virulent republican borne diseases, and generally save you from yourselves. now, you want facts, you do what i just told you. then go get stricken from another post. christ, talk about where ones mind is.
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