Corporate welfare with your tax dollars

One reporter said to me- it seems like you spend a lot of time writing for your site, where do you find the time? Well, if you’d stop providing so many crazy stories about wasting our tax dollars- I wouldn’t have to write.

In todays paper, I see that BGH Studios has politicians believing that what costs about $125K is really a $650K investment- and getting the government to buy them their tools.

Wright Institute to create 62 jobs

BGH Studios received $50,000 from the city and $75,000 from the Montgomery County ED/GE program…
• BGH Studios is a high-tech marketing communications firm that focuses on video content delivery systems, retail marketing, corporate marketing and audio/video and film services. The studio will invest $650,000 for two new video suites, an audio suite and visual effects suite on the third floor of 116 N. Jefferson St. downtown. The studio has 19 employees and plans to create 15 jobs during three years with an average salary of $46,000.

Now, I happen to be in the same business as BGH- and I can tell you, the cost of buying a video suite has dropped considerably in the last 10 years. For under $20K you can buy a complete Hi-def system, and a camera for under $8K that out-performs what used to cost over $100K. I know, I just invested $12K on a new system and camera myself. As to building out the rooms- it all depends on what level of elegance you include. Sure, you can have the Taj Mahal suite- but, BGH isn’t doing Hollywood level work. The people that are, my friends Mike Webber at Mainsail- and J. Todd Anderson who works with the Cohen brothers, buy their own gear and don’t ask for tax payer handouts.

While government is scrambling to patch roads (the price of asphalt has doubled), we can’t pass a school levy, and even police departments are having a hard time buying ammunition- why are our tax dollars buying expensive electronics for ad agencies?

When will Dayton learn that deals like these have no guaranteed pay back: Reynolds and Reynolds abandoning the TAC downtown less than 4 years after given a sweet deal as one example.

If it was made illegal to give any money or tax breaks to corporations, with the exceptions of ones that reinforce national goals (like decreasing the need for foreign oil) we may not only see a government that does more governing- but, politicians who do less pandering.

Am I the only one who’s fed up? Your thoughts please?

If you enjoyed reading true breaking news, instead of broken news from the major media in Dayton, make sure you subscribe to this site for an email every time I post. If you wish to support this blog and independent journalism in Dayton, consider donating. All of the effort that goes into writing posts and creating videos comes directly out of my pocket, so any amount helps! Please also subscribe to the Youtube channel for notifications of every video we launch – including the livestreams.