My letter to the editor of the Dayton Daily News:
Enough is enough. The debate on where to place the blame on NCR leaving or job retention or creation has to be shifted to where it belongs: squarely on the shoulders of the politicians.
Not because they didn’t do enough, but because they’ve been involved in “economic development” at all.
It should be illegal for our tax dollars to be redistributed into corporations. Voters who make minimum wage should be outraged that their tax dollars have been used at all to support a company like NCR that pays their CEO $2000/hr. while losing 2/3rds of the company’s value.
The City of Dayton says it has invested $50.4 million creating and retaining jobs since 1995 [1], yet our city is now poorer and less populated. That was our money, to be used for streets, safety, and the common good.
Politicians make lousy venture capitalists, but we sure make good idiots- allowing this madness to continue will guarantee the total collapse of our country.
If there was a time for voters to be outraged, this is it.
The emperors have no clothes. Let’s stop pretending that the CEO of NCR has the taxpayers interest at heart and deserves $60 million, or $31 million from our governor.
Subsidizing his fat paycheck isn’t my job, nor is it yours.
Demand our elected officials to stop handing over our money, NOW.
Consider this a burst of applause.
Well said.
and I second the round of applause.
Now that we understand the problem, the largest step will be educating the public, correcting, and reversing our direction…….
What disturbs me is a constant chorus about tax credits of “but everyone else does it, it’s how the game is played, how can we stop if no one else will?”. Kind of makes me think of all the times I heard a parent or teacher say “so if you’re friends walk off a bridge, are you going to follow them?”
About the only tax we’re allowed to vote on is property taxes – and the levies that roll into them like schools, police, fire, libary, parks. Yet people are so overburdened with levy fatigue, they often vote NO — and those are the worst ones to turn down. They add to the quality of life and the vibrancy of a community.
So if our economic development folks (be they City, County, the Coalition or whomever) feel they must offer tax credits and incentives to get companies to do business here, then secure an equal amount of tax deductible donations from the corporation to support our arts, non profits and capital improvement funds so the communities get SOME benefit to their being here.
TG-
and how about we stop supporting all these “economic development” people on the taxpayers dime. If every last one of them went away tomorrow- would our economy stop?
Apply that same logic to the people in the police and fire- and water department- and trash- and you start to see the banality of it.
If our city provided the right services that government was supposed to perform- and business was on a level playing field- we’d be fine.
As to the arts- I feel their pain, but- don’t tell me NCR is moving to Columbus GA for a better arts scene. I was there for jump school- nice people, nice city- but not a cultural mecca by any means. The arts will have to be funded by the rich and the people with a soul.
Don’t expect corporations or the taxpayers to do it.
The ~arts are catered to 4.5% of the population..! (according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) What about the other 95.5 % of us..??? 78% in travel sports…adult and youth teams.
I have always loved Dayton because of the potential that’s always been clearly there, but I (like a lot of people) am sick of seeing the expensive, exorbitant (and yet), ultimately half-hearted attempts at cultivating it.
It ran in the DDN today- they edited the part about Nuti’s salary out.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/opinion/taxpayers-shouldnt-subsidize-ncr-161013.html?