Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same
When Subsidies to Lure Business Don't Pan Out
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
INDIANAPOLIS � A huge, light-gray building, trimmed jauntily in blue, rises from the rolling, grassy fields on the far side of the runways at Indianapolis International Airport. From the approach road, the building seems active. But the parking lots are empty and, inside, the 12 elaborately equipped hangar bays are silent and dark. It is as if the owner of a lavishly furnished mansion had suddenly walked away, leaving everything in place.
That is what happened. United Airlines got $320 million in taxpayer money to build what is by all accounts the most technologically advanced aircraft maintenance center in America. But six months ago, the company walked away, leaving the city and state governments out all that money, and no new tenant in sight.
The shuttered maintenance center is a stark, and unusually vivid, reminder of the risk inherent in gambling public money on corporate ventures. Yet the city and state are stepping up subsidies to other companies that offer, as United once did, to bring high-paying jobs and sophisticated operations to Indiana. Many municipal and state governments are doing the same, escalating a bidding war for a shrunken pool of jobs in America despite the worst squeeze in years on their budgets.
Posted by P6 at November 9, 2003 11:29 PM | Trackback URL: http://www.prometheus6.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2248I would laugh at stories like this if it wasn't my money they were pissing away. The company says they need it? Pay for it. "Put your money where your mouth is" is the entire theme of the free market.