I wouldn’t expect a break any time soon; in fact some people are in for another tax/user fee increase. All the corporate welfare has to be paid for by somebody, the people paying the city’s income tax or user fees.
posted by mike2004 at 08:11 P.M. EST on Wed Feb 09, 2005 #
Did you ever wonder what an accounting report would show when the expenses the city spends on corporate welfare, property tax abatements, etc. stacks up against the tax income from the business and employees? Would Toledo be in the red or the black? Would we, the city's taxpayers, be better off letting these businesses carry out their threat to move away and take the economic hit, or does the city get more tax income by making deals with them to stay?
posted by timault at 12:35 P.M. EST on Thu Feb 10, 2005 #
I think an actual accounting report might show that the corporate welfare and the tax-abatements are with it. The problem with such an accounting report is that it would not count the small businesses and middle class homeowners who have been driven out of the city because the tax burden has been shifted to them. Being that there are no reports that consider all the effects of corporate welfare and tax abatements, I would have to ask if there has ever been a city that turned itself around by retaining and attracting corporate welfare queens?
posted by mike2004 at 04:39 P.M. EST on Thu Feb 10, 2005 #
Downtown Toledo is a welfare zone in more ways than one. This latest deal is simply following the same general plan.
I park in a dollar-a-day lot. I then walk for 3 blocks to get to work. On occasion I've had to fend off the near-random person asking for a handout. But that's not a big deal.
What O-I is doing is a morally vacuous as anything we see today. But it's going to work, since Toledo's politicians (backed by a large number of agreeable citizens) are completely sold on the idea of corporate welfare.
The parking situation is actually kind of a triumph of privatization. Unfortunately, it involved cronyism, hence the price could only rise. Which is why I walk for 3 blocks. Paying some crony involves just too much bile for me to swallow.
If you think downtown Toledo has a parking problem, just look at other cities. A friend of mine ran a copy shop in downtown Chicago. Between what his company paid for part-time labor, and the price of parking downtown, he honestly could not say why people worked there, since so much of their wages was eaten up by parking fees. In the 1990s, the price of a monthly parking pass in downtown Boston was well over $300. It could be much worse in Toledo.
(The parking garage they are planning on building off Erie St. by Fifth Third Bank is allegedly being priced at $85 for monthly spaces. Some grumbling has been heard, and I well note that a parking garage still hasn't been built there.)
Yes, as this happens more and more, I'm looking forward to seeing Toledo disappear in my rear-view mirror one day.
posted by Guest at 04:43 A.M. EST on Sun Feb 13, 2005 #
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