It’s time to not play favorites with tax dollars anymore

Our country was founded on the principle that “all men are created equal.” Yet our local elected leaders seem to think it’s good government to redistribute our tax dollars from the poor to the wealthy while rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

To summarize, Heidelberg Distributing is moving its HQ and at least 270 good jobs from Dayton to Moraine. The County ED/GE fund is contributing a pittance to this project, $235,000 of your tax dollars to help this happen. That money could have been used to put 3 more police on the street for a year to protect all of us, or as part of turning Dayton (the region) into a gigabit internet community- a project that would make everyone more competitive- not just Heidelberg.

What makes this deal suck even worse is that Heidelberg is already in a business that’s created and protected by  state laws requiring all alcoholic beverages to be sold by middlemen. This isn’t freewheeling capitalism at work, you or I couldn’t become an alcohol distributor if we tried. How would you feel if you were Bonbright distributing company- which is still in Dayton, knowing that part of your taxes are being given away to your arch enemy?

Heidelberg Distributing Co. is breathing new life into the long-shuttered former Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. warehouse at 3601 Dryden Road, investing $21.2 million in renovations and planning to move its north Dayton operations to the mammoth former industrial building in about six months….

Heidelberg officials said the company will borrow a projected $16.8 million, provide $4.2 million in private equity and use a $235,000 ED/GE grant approved by Moraine and Montgomery County officials to pay for the renovations and improvements.

“It is humbling to be working on a $20 million project that will outlive us and which will be here for generations,” said Heidelberg CEO Vail Miller Jr.

via Long-vacant warehouse receives $21M revamp.

I haven’t had the pleasure of knowing Vail Miller Jr., and I appreciate his company’s long commitment to Dayton (the region and the city). The jobs that he provides are crucial to my imbibing friends (I’m a teetotaler). The excuses that were used in luring GE, or for arranging a sweetheart deal to keep NCR here aren’t applicable to retaining Heidelberg here- his is a distribution business, centered in our area to serve our area. There is no way this business could locate in Sidney and still be profitable due to fuel costs alone.

It’s time to stop redistributing tax dollars and only invest our tax dollars in infrastructure and services that are accessible to all and don’t play favorites. It’s time to invest our tax dollars in things that make our area more competitive and attractive to people outside our area, to lure them here, not to pay ransoms to keep them dancing with the ugly girl at the prom.

Dayton (city and region) should have some pride. Mr. Miller should graciously decline the ED/GE money and direct that it be used for something that would help all businesses- like Gigabit Internet which would give the region a competitive advantage, not just save him rounding error on his amazing new facility.

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