Missouri scrambles to keep Ford jobs from going elsewhere

[unhappycamper]

Missouri scrambles to keep Ford jobs from going elsewhere
By Jason Noble and Randolph Heaster | Kansas City Star
Posted on Tuesday, July 6, 2010

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — In the debate over Missouri tax incentives for the Ford Motor Co., proponents are full of facts, figures and predictions of limitless possibilities.

But they promise nothing.

The 10-year, $150 million tax break now before the Missouri legislature comes with no guarantees that, even if it passes, Ford would actually take advantage of it and upgrade the Claycomo assembly plant.

It contains no guarantee that the Kansas City-area plant's 3,900-strong work force would remain intact, no guarantee that a cutting-edge production line would be installed and no guarantee of steady business for parts suppliers across the state.

Lawmakers and Gov. Jay Nixon — who called a special legislative session last month to push the incentives through — know this and readily acknowledge it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. One of the state senators holding this up

is running against Roy Blunt in the primary for US Senate. He doesn't have a prayer of winning. Only way he can get his name out is by being the butt head holding up funding for Ford.

Typical Republican bullshit.

Losing this plant would be devastating to the KC area.

[madokie]

2. Our f150 was built in KC

and it was of top notch quality if ever a vehicle was/is. 1998 model that we plan to keep until we no longer are able to drive as we only use it when we need a truck and that isn't all that often.

[DrDan]

3. my '98 has over 125K miles

my wife keeps suggesting a trade . . . I really see no reason why.

ok - it is a bit ugly now. . . . but that is pretty much it.

[madokie]

5. 132k miles on ours

and the paint is looking bad, the clear coat is cracking but other than that it's as good as new. We just put new tires on it and I replaced the balljoints and I suspect the reason I had to do that was because of the oversized tires I've put on it since it was new. 265/75 whereas it came with 235/70's but I needed, (or thought I did,) the bigger tires in my line of work then of concrete placing and finishing. The seat still looks like new, no frayed places or any of that which is a far cry from what my friends who drive chevys and dodges can say about theirs with equivalent miles and age. I'm disabled now and so I don't drive much and my wife only lives a mile from her job and most of our shopping is within 10 miles so we're not high mileage folks.

[rucky]

4. Are tax breaks and cheap labor really the only way to keep jobs?

Or are taxpayers being held hostage?

If the government knew of a way to create jobs without paying millions for them, would they? Or is this a kickback type of deal?

[unhappycamper]

6. I'm beginning to think so.

No bribe? No jobs. :(

[NNN0LHI]

8. Foreign Auto Makers Won Billions in Government Subsidies

http://washingtonindependent.com/22236/cars

Southern States Gave Auto Companies Tax-breaks and Cash for Training

By Mike Lillis 12/16/08 8:54 AM

To hear Southern Republicans tell the story, the financial burdens facing Detroit’s automakers are self-made troubles to be settled by the laws of Adam-Smith capitalism.

“We don’t think it is the role of government to intervene,” Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) told the Fox Business Network last week. “We need to let the market and the laws work the way they are already in place.”

Yet this argument — that the government has no business interfering in free markets — ignores an increasingly frequent tradition among Southern states, which have fronted billions in local taxpayer dollars in the past two decades to attract foreign auto plants. Those incentives, arriving in the form of tax breaks, training for new employees and even land, have enticed BMW to South Carolina, Mercedes to Alabama and Nissan to Tennessee. The result of the government subsidies has been the steady emergence of the South as an auto-manufacturing powerhouse. Some are dubbing it the “New Detroit” – a region where real estate is cheap and the labor’s not unionized.

Not coincidentally, these Southern states are represented by the same coalition of GOP senators who led the fight against the recent Detroit bailout proposal. That legislation would have provided $14 billion in emergency bridge loans to General Motors and Chrysler, both of which say they lack the finances to survive the month. Rallying behind the animated opposition of GOP Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.), Richard Shelby (Ala.), Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and South Carolina’s DeMint, Senate Republicans killed the legislation.

[SocialistLez]

10. In this country, it seems like the answer is yes

Companies (read: corporations) here see taxes as evil.
It's sad.

[pipoman]

7. On one hand, I get it,

OTOH, having been a small business owner with around 10 employees, the incredible tax burden was definitely contributory to my closing up...nobody offered me any incentives or tax breaks to stay open. I think there should be tax incentive programs in place to assist small business with 5-50 employees if states offer these huge incentives to multinational corps..level playing field and all that..

[SocialistLez]

9. "level playing field and all that"

Agreed.

The field is rigged to benefit large corporations.
States spend so much time shelling out "economic incentives" on big corporations that they are basically ignoring small businesses.

[rucky]

11. Large companies use the government to keep their edge

over startups. They love government intervention. They can't live without it.