The Way Business Is Done

If you create more jobs in Manchester, you can extort the taxpayers and by-pass the living wage ordinance. I have to give credit to the owners of Vision Technical Molding and Advance Mold, they have taken advantage of a perfect storm to come out ahead. That storm is made up of a U.S. recession, Republicans in the majority, and Mohawk Cable (Belden, Inc.) closing its doors in Manchester and sending jobs to Mexico. I also have to give credit to the Manchester GOP. This is the first chance they’ve had to poke a hole in the Living Wage Ordinance that they voted against when it was enacted by the Democrats.

“Less than two weeks after local officials learned that the Mohawk Cable plant on Progress Drive was closing, town directors approved a tax abatement for two companies that suggested they, too, might close and move their operations out of the country.” (1)

According to the Hartford Courant article, this “suggestion” was made two days after the announcement of the closing of the Mohawk plant in a letter to the General Manager from one of the partners of the company. Is it just me, or does this sound something like this: give my company a tax abatement and let my company bypass the living wage ordinance or I will move my plant and lay-off 160 people. I’m asking myself, how is this not extortion?

Extort: to wrest or wring (money, information, etc.) from a person by violence, intimidation, or abuse of authority; obtain by force, torture, threat, or the like. (2)

In the business world, it isn’t called extortion, it’s called “leveraging your position.” I have no issue with businesses making money. It’s what they do. What I have a problem with is how this deal went down. It was introduced in an executive session of the April 1st BOD meeting. It was then added to the agenda for the second meeting of the month with no public announcement that the BOD agenda was revised. Now, when I was a teenager, and I tried slipping something under my parent’s nose, it was called, “pulling a fast one.” How is this open and accountable government?

In the end, the upside is that Vision Technical Molding and Advance Mold are creating fifteen new jobs now and fifteen more over the next year. Hopefully those jobs can go to people being laid-off at the Mohawk Cable plant. Those being laid-off should take advantage of the retraining being offered to get the skills they would need to work in an injection molding plant. Also, in seven years, Manchester will be able to add this company’s addition into the grand list.

The downside is that Manchester's taxpayers are footing the bill for $85,000 over the next seven years, and nineteen people at those plants will not be making the Manchester living wage of $11.40 per hour. Incidentally, a recently published study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition stated that a person would need to earn $18.64 per hour to have a modest two bedroom apartment in the Hartford area. (3) So those nineteen people will need to get a second job, or if they have a partner or spouse, they will have to work full time as well.

I’ve been laid off before. It’s very scary. I ask you this: Should businesses and town governments use that fear to their advantage? In this taxpayer’s opinion, it’s extortion, but that’s the way business has always been done.

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References:

(1) Uhlinger, Nick “Manchester Approves Tax Break For Two Companies” Hartford Courant 10 April 2008

(2) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/extort

(3) National Low Income Housing Coalition “Out of Reach” study. 2008