Another major Ohio company has decided to stay in Ohio after considering offers from multiple other states. Diebold, known most for making ATM machines, has several locations in the Akron/Canton area, but will now build a new world headquarters and consolidate most of those locations and employees.
Diebold today will announce plans to build a $100 million corporate campus and global headquarters in the Akron/Canton region. The company, based in Green, confirmed the deal Monday but would not say where it might build.The state is offering $56 million in incentives for Diebold to remain in Ohio. This has some on the extreme left upset. Some folks actually sound angry that Diebold is keeping their 1900 jobs and building a new $100 million headquarters in Ohio. Check out some of these comments.
Diebold employs 1,900 people at five sites in Summit and Stark counties and 16,000 worldwide. It said it considered moving to North Carolina or Virginia, and at least one of those states made an offer before Ohio officials offered their own "compelling" package, the company said.
So they generated 2 something billion in 2010. The state gives them 56 lion in tax breaks. Corporate welfare at its finest. Can we elect someone in the next presidential race who is going to end this kinda and tax this knuckleheads like they should be getting taxed. You want to take your toys and leave town then fine here is a hefty bill. It make them think twice about pulling a stunt like this.Idiotic. Why would a company leaving Ohio have to pay a "hefty bill"? Other liberals are claiming, like they did about American Greetings, that Diebold wasn't going to leave.
The Canton Repository has new information about today’s Diebold announcement. One is that the move very likely will cost the City of Canton significant losses in municipal income tax receipts.Wishful thinking. Of course it was their preference to stay. But sometimes you have to do whats best for your company. And Diebold did receive a serious package of incentives from another state. Consider being offered a job in another state making significantly more than you make now. You'd probably prefer to stay where you are, but it also might be better for your family to take the offer.
The second throws even further doubt if they were ever serious about moving out of Ohio in the first place:
The company told then-Governor Ted Strickland’s administration that “it was our strong preference not to leave.”
What they are really upset about, is that this happened under John Kasich's administration. They do not want any victories for him whatsoever, so they will attempt to discredit every one of them. They even suggest that Diebold got an offer from another state just to blackmail Ohio, and that they were never really going to leave. Because, you know, major companies just don't leave Ohio for other states, do they? It just doesn't happen, right liberals?
Which brings me to the eerie irony in this story. Guess who is Diebold's major competitor. NCR. The same NCR that used to have its headquarters here in Ohio. They moved to Georgia for greener pastures in 2009 during the "Turnaround" Ted Strickland administration.
The governor said he wanted to avoid a repeat of the situation where Diebold competitor NCR moved its headquarters from Dayton to Georgia in 2009 due in part to tax incentives offered by that state.Let's compare the two approaches. First, Ted Strickland. He basically hoped Diebold wouldn't move, and not much else.
“We lost NCR because we weren’t even in the ball game. People were asleep at the wheel. We could not allow that to happen again,” Kasich said.
“If you don’t have an incentive package that works, if somebody else is outbidding you, you’re going to lose,” said Kasich, who added that North Carolina could offer the enticement of its Research Triangle, which includes top technology companies and universities. “When their main competitor has moved from this area or moved from the state of Ohio to Georgia, Diebold can’t afford to have a higher cost structure.”
Jacobsen said Diebold officials told the administration of then-governor Ted Strickland that the company was considering moving, but the company and the state could not agree on a package of incentives.Now, John Kasich:
Kasich said a week after he was elected in November, he called Swidarski and said, “we’re going to do everything we can to keep you.”This past election was clearly about jobs. So, now we have a governor who is aggressively seeking and retaining high-paying jobs, instead of letting 400,000 of them disappear...and the left is complaining about it. If he did NOT give them incentives to stay, and they left like NCR did, can you imagine what they would be saying then? These people are so disingenuous. Unreal.
The governor even offered to address Diebold’s board and make his pitch in person.
“Whatever you want me to do,” he said.
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Kudos to Kasich for being pro-active.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure he will receive criticism for his efforts.
What's unreal is how delusional you are.
ReplyDeleteLess than 2% of the jobs Ohio lost was due to migratation at best. That means 98% were lost to the recession. Those jobs didn't move; they evaporated.
John Kasich has spent nearly $100 million already on what was less than 2% of the problem.
Under the Kasich corporate bailout plan, Diebold can still keep $100 million in tax incentives while cutting 20% of its workforce in Ohio. Kasich has admitted as much.
What the Kasich Administration has created is a legislative roadmap that says so long as a large company can convince another State to give them an incentive package, they can reduce their taxes by millions from Ohio, even if they have no real intention of leaving.
But that doesn't stop the conservative fantasy that this package (like the American Greetings) doesn't contain virtually the same elements created and offered by the Strickland Administration sweetened even further by the massive tax giveaway passed in legisation passed this year.
We are giving out $56 MILLION in corporate welfare to keep a company that can still cut its workforce 20% and had only one offer in North Carolina that was so tempting they won't disclose it and led them to tell Strickland they were strongly inclined to stay.
You can spin all you want, but the reality is that Kasich is giving corporate welfare bailouts like candy to companies who, like American Greetings, had pretty obvious tells they were in no real danger of leaving.
Local executives from NCR were unavailable for comment.
ReplyDeleteModern, you have no clue how serious they were about moving.
ReplyDeleteBut now we know they aren't.
If they HAD left, you would have been all over that, too.
I know how serious they were in not leaving because their CEO is quoted as such. You tried to minimize that in order to applaud the Kasich corporate welfare bailout plan that gives $100 million to a company that despite nearly $3 billion in annual revenues can still keep every penny while firing 20% of its Ohio workforce.
ReplyDeleteThat's not even job retention, let alone creation.
Where's your "broken window fallacy" now, hypocrite?
I'd liek to see, you know, like, um, actual PROOF of this contention:
ReplyDelete"Less than 2% of the jobs Ohio lost was due to migratation at best. That means 98% were lost to the recession. Those jobs didn't move; they evaporated."
I am skeptical concerning the validity of this above for two reasons:
(1) This map, developed by Forbes and based on IRS data shows significant out migration from Ohio.
(2) Ohio LOST two house seats based on the last election. Clearly that indicates a net outward migration from the state.
But if there is proof Modern, I'm certain you will provide promptly and courteously.
there is another logical fallacy in Modern's latest post. The use of the word "spent" is inappropriate. No money has flowed from the state treasury to either Diebold or American Greeting. Rather the state has forgone tax reciepts from these firms.
Modern is being, to put it politely, disingenuous with the word choice here.
Economic illiteracy is also on display in Modern's comment. The, gasp, "corporate welfare" meme is ludicrous on its face. No corporation actually PAYS tax. Tax is a cost that is passed on the customer. If NCR faces a lower tax burden they can offer competitive products at lower cost to the consumer. Diebold and other must include the "expense" of taxation because they still wish to be profitable.
finally, the issue of workforce reduction is just an example of sour grapes. Even if Diebold reduces it workforce because physical consolidation results in greater efficiency, 80% of a loaf is still better than none.
Sour grapes, economic illiteracy, unsupported claims, wow all in one comment. Thank you, Modern, for such productivity.
I neglected to include the addy for the excellent Forbes interactive map:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/migration-moving-wealthy-interactive-counties-map.html?preload=39099
It seems to me that the ruling elites in Ohio should be embarrassed.
Awww. You can tell when Modern's getting testy again when he starts calling names.
ReplyDeleteHe wants us to continue the Strickland model: Do nothing, and watch companies and people leave.
The Stickland/Modern status quo doctrine:
Bye bye jobs!
Bye bye population!
Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteI'm citing to information that comes from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services:
http://www.plunderbund.com/2010/09/27/ohio-economic-trivia-question-how-much-has-ohio-lost-jobs-to-other-states/
The idea isn't that far fetched. After all, we DID have this thing called a recession. And for all the talk about how great the South is, the reality is that Ohio is beating several Southern states with much lower unemployment as them.
Ohio GAINED population in the past ten years, just not as much as other States. Regardless, guess what the seventh most populous State in the nation was after the 2000 census? Ohio.
Now guess where Ohio ranked after the 2010 census? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_population
Seventh. Same place it had been ranked ten years prior.
Um, we're LOANING money to these companies, too. Also, when you forgo tax revenues you were expecting, that has the same budgetary effect as spending the money elsewhere.
Not all taxes are passed onto the customer. Before you accuse another of economic ignorance, you should look at the term tax incidence sometime. Not all taxes can be passed onto the consumer in the market.
Never before has the State of Ohio be part of an $100 million corporate welfare package that still allows the company to massive layoffs of up to 20% of its present workforce with no impact on the package of corporate aid it is getting.
I'd challenge you to find one.