Goodyear demands that the taxpayers of Akron pay them to stay here and the Mayor & City Council approve anything they seem to ask for with their promises they fail to keep.

In the mid 1990′s see the following “Actual Investments Subject to Abatements”

Project Name	Abatement Period	Investment Subject to Abatement	% of Abatement
Goodyear Polymer Plant	1995 – 2005	$5,063,943	75%
Goodyear Tire Tech Center 1	1995 – 2005	$8,161,600	75%
Goodyear Corporate R & D	1996 – 2006	$32,176,831	75%
Goodyear Chemical Pilot Plant	1997 – 2007	$2,954,975	100%
Goodyear Campus Expansion	1999 – 2009	$39,064,944	100%

In addition when Goodyear built their Tech Center the City constructed streets, sidewalks, storm and sanitary sewers, street lights and landscaping with a $11.4 million UDAG, a $1 million USEDA grant and $1.25 million Ohio Department of Economic and Community Development.  The City of Akron funded $7.35 million plus interest to finance a major portion of the $23.5 million public improvement, (this was not a public improvement, it was for Goodyear).

June 8, 1999 – Akron City Council, calling it a “no-brainer”, council voted unanimously to give Goodyear the 10 year tax break.

Planning Committee Chairman, John Otterman, D-6, said failure to act on the abatement could be “catastrophic” for the City.  He said the tax incentive package the City put together for Goodyear was important not only for the 250 new jobs, but to keep the 4,000 current ones.  Remember this number 4,240 jobs total.

In 2005 Goodyear through a cooperative agreement with the Summit County Port Authority, Cleveland – Cuyahoga County Port Authority, the Director of Development, State of Ohio, the U.S. Bank National Association and Goodyear for a $12 million Utility Optimization (HVAC) project.  The City of Akron would make the payments on the principal & interest should Goodyear default on the loan.

On December 5, 2007, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company announced its plans to establish new facilities for its global and North American headquarters.  A total of 2,900 jobs would be retained.  What happened to the other 1,350 jobs  (see above) we paid for with tax abatements?  If that’s not bad enough the City, County, State and other government entities would provide nearly $200 million ($200,000,000.00 - an awful lot of zeros isn’t it?) towards the cost of the project.  These are taxpayer dollars!

This is not armed robbery, Goodyear doesn’t have any guns.

If the above isn’t enough there’s more:

1. Personal Property Tax of 90% abatement over the next 10 years.
2. Goodyear has been awarded a tiered 25 to 27 percent Job Retention Tax Credit for a term of up to 15 years for the retention of 2,900 positions.  The value of the tax credit is estimated at another $30 million.
3. A $3 million Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund grant for asbestos abatement and demolition of the old fire house.
4. A $750,000.00 Clean Ohio Assistance Fund grant to clean up and demolish the 99 Seiberling Street building.
5. The City and the School Board will give Goodyear Real Estate Tax abatements on all the improvements on this project, also know as Tax Increment Financing (TIF’s).  This means no taxes collected for the schools, libraries, children services and the list goes on and on…….
6. The City of Akron approved spending $751,000.00 on March 23, 2009 to improve Tech Way off Kelly Avenue.
7. Summit County has requested $32.8 million in stimulus money for the Goodyear parking deck and skywalk work.
8. A $956,049.00 Clean Ohio Revitalization fund  for environmental remediation and demolition of Goodyear building #116.
9. Five City of Akron road projects worth $19 million, the S. Main Street, Tallmadge Avenue, Darrow Road, and two on W. Market Street, were officially killed and the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation study committee voted to move the money to the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company project.

And on and on it goes, you taxpayers keep paying your taxes to finance this Goodyear project and to hell with our streets, hiring more police officers, correcting our sewer problems, and etc.

Investing all this money in Goodyear should make us all stockholders but don’t spend your dividends.

Wake up people…Wake up taxpayers, how much longer are we going to let this go on?

Enough is enough….letting the Mayor and his cabinet burn your money!

Tags: abatement, Goodyear, income, Tech center, waste

This entry was posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 6:43 pm and is filed under Development & Jobs, Finances. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.