A local task force has recommended the reward of Holophane and others with our tax dollars, according to today’s Advocate report.
That they so recommend says everything you need to know about the unnamed “21-member Licking County Stimulus Task Force” and how any recommendation it makes will represent the interests of taxpayers or should be taken seriously.
In an article 10/7/08, Columbus Business First reported that the corporation that had acquired Holophane - Acuity Brands Inc. - would cut 150 Newark-plant jobs by February 2009. It would also close its Utica plant at a cost of another 100 jobs. Acuity said this would “cut overhead costs.”
That still left this $2-billion-a-year-in-sales corporation with 6,200 “associates” throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Read about this Atlanta-based giant at this link.
How Kaiser and Fiberglas stack up against Holophane’s magnificent contribution to local welfare should be next under the spotlight before the first dime of tax money is handed to them by some mystery “task force” that set itself up to represent the interests of local taxpayers.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Bruce -- I'm going to cry foul on your post. I've been respectful to your posts and ask you to correct this post.
ReplyDeleteThe Task Force is NOT handing out money and you know it. It is an advocacy effort to encourage the state to focus on our priorities. You have had, like the public has since March 6th, the facts at http://stimulustaskforce.com.
It was you who wrote this in February:
"Okay, I'll join forces with you on retrieving some of that money - but only if it will go to the right places, and not for governments to make themselves fatter and more costly. We need to remember what President Obama said yesterday about this huge tax dole:
'From the beginning, this recovery plan has had at its core a simple idea: Let's put Americans to work doing the work America needs done. It will save or create more than 3 million jobs over the next two years ... almost all of them in the private sector, and all of them jobs that help us recover today, and prosper tomorrow.'
"NOTE: almost all of them in the private sector."
How can you, less than 60 days ago, write that you want the stimulus money to go to the private sector and then write this attack on our local companies today?
If stimulus dollars actually do find their way to Licking County companies, that's better than those same dollars going to a company somewhere else that competes with us for jobs.
Can't we agree on that? Jobs here.