When I hire someone, do I get $2,143 for doing it? Nope. I have to spend some time filling out government paperwork and verifying citizenship and the right to vote. Then, I have to add them to payroll, and pay city income taxes to any number of different cities.

Most small businesses I know would love a check for hiring people. But, that’s not how it works anymore. The big guys get the breaks, the small guys get broke.

Reynolds and Reynolds Co. will consolidate its finance and insurance operations into a single unit at the company’s headquarters campus in Kettering, creating about 70 jobs…

Currently, the majority of those operations are located in Georgia and the rest are scattered across the United States,

Kettering officials said the city and the Dayton Development Coalition will offer $150,000 in economic incentives to assist Reynolds with the move.

Reynolds — a provider of software and services to auto dealers — has about 1,700 employees, including 1,400 locally.

via Reynolds consolidation to create 70 jobs in Kettering – Dayton Business Journal:.

This is nothing but corporate welfare. It’s unfair, it’s not business friendly, and it’s a waste of your tax dollars. As a public service, I’m publishing these on this site, so when Reynolds announces it’s next round of layoffs- we can find this charitable contribution to their bottom line- and ask for our money back.

Corporate welfare needs to be illegal, nationwide. End of story (at least for today).

Sprawl will kill us all.

In the final act of a three act play, orchestrated by corporate chieftains and played out by foolish bureaucrats, the series of tax breaks and “development deals” finalizes with the CEOs laughing- and the taxpayers not getting what they were promised.

Reynolds & Reynolds used to be entirely in Dayton. Then a rift between then CEO Dave Holmes and then Dayton Mayor Mike Turner started Holmes on a shopping trip for a new location. Kettering offered a great deal- and Reynolds first spun off “Relizon” (now “WorkflowOne”) to Kettering- then got a deal from Dayton to move them back to the old Sears location across from Riverscape (2 tax break deals and counting) – then the deal with Dayton Public Schools to buy the HQ and the buildings on Washington Street (Deal three) so that they could then move everything to Kettering. The city begs- and gets a bone thrown to them- the former Elder Beerman store will become the TAC- funded by CityWide (Deal four)- only for Reynolds to now bail on location- figuring that paying lower income taxes in Kettering- not having to deal with parking- or the City is cheaper than staying the course. 400 jobs move out- and the city stands with yet another empty building with almost new class A space (maybe CareSource will sublet it- if their building isn’t done on time).

Reynolds and Reynolds Co. told Dayton city officials Wednesday morning that it is leaving downtown Dayton, moving 400 jobs to its campus in Kettering.

The company intends to relocate its Technical Assistance Center (TAC) operations from leased space in downtown Dayton to the Reynolds and Reynolds headquarters at the Research Park in Kettering.

The move will occur gradually during the next several months. Dayton city officials did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The move will bring the total number of employees working in Kettering to about 1,500….

In February, Steve Budd, CityWide president, said that Reynolds still has 11 years left on its lease at Courthouse Crossing and would more than likely try to sublease it if it decided to move operations to Kettering.

Otherwise, Reynolds would have to continue to pay for the space, Budd said.

“It’s the energy the employees project that makes the downtown vibrant,” Budd said. “If they were not in the space, that would have repercussions.”…

Courthouse Crossing is owned by New York-based ACG Equities LLC, which bought it from CityWide Development Corp. in 2004 for $16.2 million dollars.

CityWide still manages the property, which also houses a CVS Pharmacy, the United States Postal Service, Boston Stoker and Roly Poly sandwich shop.

Reynolds to move 400 jobs out of downtown – Dayton Business Journal:.

The zinger on this story- maybe if the City had spent as much time and money on the basics: schools, streets, safety, recreation- and found ways to live on less than the 2.25% income tax- maybe companies would want to locate in Dayton.

An architect/builder told me long ago- “you can’t build anything good on a bad foundation.”

Dayton’s problems aren’t going to be solved by “economic development”- they’ll be solved when we take care of the basics better. It’s time to shut the slush-fund CityWide Development down, and work on doing government 101.

Reynolds & Reynolds TAC: 2001?-2008 R.I.P.

A couple of months ago I introduced Wright State University President David Hopkins to one of Dayton’s true gems: Charlies Imports on Troy Street. Hopkins couldn’t get over how the place reminded him of his working class neighborhood in Elyria Ohio where he grew up. The food is also amazing and relatively inexpensive.

Rod Vangas is at least the second generation owner of the small sandwich shop- and of late, he’s had a series of break-ins. Read the following excerpt from the Dayton Daily News:

Troy Street grocer hopes arrest halts crime pattern
Vangas said police suggested he put bars over his window. While Vangas said he spends almost $1,000 every time his business is burglarized, putting bars on the window would ruin the aesthetic in a neighborhood that is otherwise pleasant.

Rod knows that perception quickly becomes reality- and that the siege mentality of bars on windows, bricked in or boarded up windows is the first sign that a neighborhood is in decline.

If you have any questions- go look around Dayton and then compare to the gleaming success of Brown Street. Even Wayne Avenue just a few blocks away is starting to look seedy, thanks to the proliferation of welfare economy businesses- an empty check cashing store, a cell-phone beeper shop, and boarded up shops. Even the tire store bricked in their garage door at the corner of Oak and Wayne.

The root problems for Charlie’s Imports are caused by a combination of factors: the burglar is unemployed, probably addicted, and the criminal justice system isn’t solving the problem through incarceration without treatment and retraining, or by having a revolving door.

More bars on the windows or prisoners behind bars are both short sighted solutions to a much bigger problem: the growing divide between rich and poor. When Barack Obama points out that some people on Wall Street are making more in ten minutes than people on Main Street make in a year- it’s not just good campaign rhetoric, it’s the heart of the problem.

The United States, land of the free, now has more people behind bars both in numbers and per-capita than any other nation on earth. The costs are staggering, both in terms of maintaining the prisons- and the lost human capital. Once convicted, re-entry to society is difficult, and earning potential is almost always permanently decreased- causing lower taxable wages.

The downward spiral on society is just as bad as the downward spiral that would be started by Charlie’s Imports going “bunker modern.” Rod Vangas is taking the right stand.

If Dayton wants to see real economic development, it should be more worried about taking the bars off the windows instead of doling out tax dollars to corporations like Reynolds and Reynolds that put the corporations interest far before the peoples.

If you are anywhere near Troy Street for lunch- I highly recommend the Duririon Salad with pasta, the Black Forrest or the Hatch Sandwiches. Also- check out the selection of European Chocolate in the back- no Frigor, but always some good Lindt.