My stimulus rant didn’t go far enough

Yesterday I wrote about the folly of presenting Holophane with any local tax dollars in the form of a “stimulus” at the behest of what I called a “mystery ‘task force.’”

I was wrong on two counts. One is that the names of task force members had been announced on the Port Authority’s web site. The other is that I didn’t go far enough in my denunciation of this task force or the stupidity of handing over local tax money to three multinational corporations.

That the task force is no longer a mystery is amplified when one reads that they serve by invitation of the Port Authority (“in concert with various community stakeholders,” as it says on the web site). Being so hand-picked establishes as certainty that these folks will represent, instead of the majority of local taxpayers, the goals of the Port Authority.

And what would that be? For one thing, greater profitability for three multinational corporations - not jobs. In a sidebar to the Advocate report we learn that:

This group has recommended the award our tax money to Owens Corning so that it might - not hire more workers - but improve its efficiency (read profits); to Kaiser Aluminum so that it might - not hire more workers - but improve its efficiency (read profits); and to Holophane, so that it might - not hire more workers - but to improve its efficiency (read profits).

Owens Corning, headquartered in Toledo, has a market value of $1.25 billion, with $5 billion in sales in 2007 and 18,000 employees in 26 countries on five continents.

Acuity Brands, owner of Holophane, headquartered in Georgia, had $2 billion in revenue last year, and operates 24 manufacturing facilities, including 12 facilities in the United States, one facility in Canada, six facilities in Mexico, and five facilities in Europe.

Kaiser Aluminum, headquartered in California, has a market value of $492.3 million and has 2,500 employes throughout the U.S. and also has plants in Canada and United Kingdom.

I doubt that many local taxpayers would want to donate money to shareholders of these corporations.

In a comment to my yesterday’s rant about the stupidity of awarding local money in this way, Ron Platt of the Port Authority accused me going back on an earlier published statement that I’d work with him for retrieval of stimulus tax dollars. What he failed to comprehend in my statement was what followed: “but only if it will go to the right places,” mentioning Obama’s goal of creating more than 3 million jobs as something we need to remember. And to that I add now that just because the Port Authority proposes a way to spend stimulus funds doesn’t mean the community is going to rubber-stamp it.

Donating local funds to shareholders of multinationals without even a hint of new jobs is just plain dumb. In its recommendation for doing so, the task force lost credibility with the community.

Meanwhile, there are hundreds of really good, homegrown businesses in this county that could use those stimulus dollars to expand their enterprises and create jobs and local wealth.

Never once, however, have I heard of any government or quasi-government interest in this kind of small-potatoes job creation. It’s all about big business and big infrastructure - and that needs to change.