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[JustRalph]

ok........you can tell this issue has me fired up huh?

Originally Posted by ljb

JR,
Lottsa words. You are speaking of international companies. Local government has little control over what international companies do.

Bullshit! The 13% bed Tax on Hotels keeps anybody from coming. It doesn't discriminate based on company size or location. If you come to Columbus to do business you pay it. You setup shop in Columbus and the local confiscatory inventory taxes take hold. There are others. Locals don't come to Columbus either. They know better. I used to have to pay this "bed" tax when I rented an Airplane in one of the Airports in the Franklin County area. They actually tacked it on to anything to do with the Airports and hotels. Two hours of flying cost $30 bucks more in Columbus. When you are a flight student........$30 bucks means something. I started flying from an Airport five minutes across the county line. I also later hangered my plane there (gas was cheaper, no bed tax) and spent thousands of dollars in the repair shop etc......five minutes outside the border of the bed tax. This tax was also put on rental cars and such. It remains today. These companies see a tax and spend council and government that thinks that they can fix all of their problems with a tax increase. These companies know the climate. They know that they will be the target of future tax increases. They will gravitate away from it

The American based auto companies have been in trouble for years here. This is partly caused by legacy costs and unfair trade policies. I doubt if the city council in either Cleveland or Columbus could have a major impact on these international circumstances.

Not particularly, agreed to an extent but their reliance on and their dependence on just these types of companies is what makes them think they can ignore other businesses who need incentives to come to town. The fact that these autoworkers don't live in the city and choose the suburbs, has robbed (quite literally) the city of millions of dollars over the last 25 years. How much stronger would the city be if the dollars spent in the suburbs were actually in the coffers of the city businesses? Ignoring and practically encouraging flight from the cities hurts everybody. The city governments have this responsibility right in their laps. The city governments are responsible for crime and the state of the neighborhoods. This includes the school systems who invented "white flight" while trying to force liberal causes down the throats of citizens. Instead of naturally occurring societal changes.....which were coming.......an entire generation opted out........leaving the cities behind. This is a classic example of why inner cities have failed due to liberal causes.

Yes they could give tax breaks to the corporations which would take them and show more profit only to pull out as soon as the tax breaks expired.

Wrong. Several suburbs have dealt with this and in the agreements they have put in penalty clauses that keep this from happening. If the company pulls out they have to pay a penalty. These have been upheld by the courts too. If the company goes Tits up and files bankruptcy the city becomes a compensated creditor just like everybody else.

Meanwhile you and I are paying taxes to provide the services required to support these corporate facilities. In this day and age a facility 35 miles outside a city is not to be considered out sourcing. No, this is not a problem caused by the local government, this is a problem caused by the corporate lobbyists that currently control our federal government.

You cannot ignore the control local governments have over the areas. The biggest mistake they make is not governing from the right position. They are more concerned with being socially liberal than fiscally sound for the future.
I don't know what the hell you mean by the outsourcing comment above, but it is not germane to my argument...as far as I can see. The company I mentioned just crossed Columbus off its list of locations. It has nothing to do with outsourcing.

Recently the same thing happen with Toyota. A location near Toledo was being considered for a Toyota plant. The State couldn't get the job done the last I read the plant is being built in Indiana. This Toyota factory will sustain the area for at least the next 25 years. Can you imagine Toyota going out of business? All the stops should have been pulled out to land this factory. Nope, they couldn't get it done. More failure on the part of government. Local Government.