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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > June > 04
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Turner, Boehner fire off letter criticizing Georgia NCR stimulus request
U.S. Reps. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, and House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, have fired off a letter to President Barack Obama to protest the fact that Columbus, Ga., has requested stimulus money to help pay for the purchase of a building that will house NCR jobs.
“We think you would agree that federal stimulus dollars should not be used to allow one state to gain jobs at the expense of another state,” the two wrote in a letter dated June 3. “It appears federal stimulus funds played a role in NCR’s decision to relocate jobs from Ohio and centralize its operations in Georgia. Certainly luring jobs away from one state to another state violates the spirit of the law.”
Their letter comes one day after a handful of Ohio lawmakers sent angry press releases denouncing Columbus, Ga.’s request of about $5 million to help fund the purchase of a building and construction of another building to house NCR manufacturing jobs.
Those jobs would not come from the Dayton facility - Dayton’s jobs are going to Duluth, Ga. - but would come from a company in Columbia, S.C. that NCR has contracted with to manufacture ATMs.
Columbus, Ga., mayor Jim Wetherington said Wednesday that the city sent in the proposal to NCR fully prepared to foot the city’s $6.5 million share itself. It hopes to get stimulus money, he said, to offset the city’s $6.5 million tab. The state of Georgia also expects to commit $1.5 million to purchase the building and construct the other building, he said.
Wetherington said the city didn’t apply for stimulus money until after it was selected for the NCR site.
An Obama administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, reiterated that no money has been awarded yet and “the administration obviously had no role in the relocation. “
The administration “does not provide funds to incentivize a corporate relocation from one U.S. region to another, and will review every request very carefully,” the Obama administration official said.
Still, lawmakers are prepared to continue to make hay of this. Boehner, in a weekly press conference with national media Thursday, June 4, denounced the stimulus request as an attempt to lure a Fortune 500 company from Dayton, and used it as an example of how flawed he believes the stimulus bill is.
