2nd post about Councilman Vogt’s recent idea
Posted by Mike Sylvester - 1/26/10 @ 9:51 pm - Filed Under Featured, Local Politics
A couple of days ago I posted about at idea from Allen County Council member Darren Vogt that was discussed in the local newspapers.
Councilman Vogt left a comment on the above post and stated that “Hey Mike, you have the facts all wrong call me so you can get them and then you can evaluate the plan. If you don’t like it after that you can repost the facts and let others decide what they think. Thanks, Darren.”
Councilman Vogt then gave me a call at work and we discussed the topic for about 20 minutes yesterday.
After reviewing my post I do not see any facts that I got wrong; however, there may be some items in the post that are up for debate and that is the purpose of this blog. It is also possible that there are items that the media has been reporting wrong concerning the additional GM jobs. That being said, Councilman Vogt made a couple of interesting comments to me on the phone and I want to revisit my prior post.
I think the first point of contention is whether the additional 700 GM jobs in Fort Wayne are permanent or temporary. I feel they are temporary based on past local media reports and the direction I personally think the domestic auto industry and are economy in general are headed. Councilman Vogt feels that these jobs may not be temporary. I think only time will tell.
I next stated in my prior post that “The vast majority of workers are expected to come here from Pontiac Michigan. These GM employees will have a lot of seniority and they will likely have deep roots in Pontiac Michigan.” In my phone conversation with Council Vogt he said that he has talked to a local GM official and that the “first wave” of the transplanted GM employees would have 15-20 years of seniority. He felt that my post exaggerated the employees seniority and their likelihood of moving permanently to Fort Wayne. Once again, only time will tell. I have to admit that I personally guessed that the GM employees would have 15 - 30 years of seniority; however, I still feel that the majority of these workers will not move to Fort Wayne; at least not until they are certain the Fort Wayne jobs are permanent.
Councilman Vogt also felt that everyone should better understand the source of the funds he wants to use to bribe incentivize GM workers to purchase a house in Allen County. I found this part of our conversation to be quite interesting. The fund that he wants to use has about $765,000 in it and is a fund that gets money from companies who receive tax abatements in Allen County. Apparently when a company gets a tax abatement from Allen County they have an option to voluntarily contribute either 10% of the abated amount or 20% of the abated amount or 0% of the abated amount into a fund. The money from this fund has apparently never been spent and apparently has no restrictions on its use. Councilman Vogt told me he felt that County Council would likely only use this fund for “economic development.”
Rather than bribe incentivize a few GM workers to purchase a house in Allen County I have a much better idea for Councilman Vogt.
Refund the money to the taxpayers or if you insist on spending it on Economic Development then split it evenly among all of the businesses in Allen County who are creating jobs and not receiving any Government incentives to create new jobs. I think County Council show stop subsidizing a few businesses to the detriment of the rest of us.
Next Councilman Vogt took exception to the fact that I posted “The County is broke and struggling to make its budget work.” I have looked at the amount of debt the County is servicing and I can promise Councilman Vogt that the Allen County Council is going to struggle to create a budget that will work in the next couple of years especially considering the recent economic downturn and the fact that Fort Wayne has annexed some of the wealthier portions that used to generate tax revenue for the County. Add to that the recent actions of Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry and the future loss of rental income the County currently receives from the City for office space and Allen County is in for a rough time fiscally. I will agree with him that Allen County is in a better financial situation than many other Government entities; however, I truly feel that the Allen County budget is going to be very strained in the next couple of years and that the money in this fund could be better used!
I truly appreciate the fact that Councilman Vogt took the time to contact me and explain his point of view. I do not agree with his plan at all; however, I respect him greatly for being willing to call me and discuss it. We need more elected officials who are willing to defend their ideas and I am impressed that Councilman Vogt called me to “discuss” the issue.
Councilman Vogt if you have a rebuttal to this I would be happy to post your rebuttal in its entirety without comment so that your views can be expressed on this blog! Just email it to me via this blog! I will post it within 24 hours!
Mike
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[...] this blog we discussed the proposed bribe incentive that some County officials were considering paying to GM employees who chose to buy [...]