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Strickland: NCR never gave Ohio a chance

Learn more about Duluth, where NCR is moving its headquarters to in Georgia.

Georgia offered $60M, airport, key demographics
NCR leaving data center, sales functions here
Blog: Editorial: What’s it mean to lose NCR?
NCR move at a glance
NCR stock quote At hosted.ap.org
What do Georgians think of the deal? (at ajc.com) At blogs.ajc.com
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By William Hershey, Staff Writer Updated 2:29 PM Tuesday, June 2, 2009

COLUMBUS — NCR never gave Ohio the opportunity to compete with Georgia to keep the company headquarters in Dayton, Gov. Ted Strickland said on Tuesday, June 2.

“The fact is, without NCR’s willingness to engage with us, it was impossible to know what may or may not have been a sufficient incentive package,” Strickland said in a telephone interview hours after NCR announced plans to move the headquarters to Georgia after 125 years in Dayton.

He spoke by phone for the first time on Monday, June 1, with NCR Chairman and CEO Bill Nuti after making between three and five attempts within the past two to three weeks to reach Nuti, Strickland said.

Strickland said that he put together the package of $31 million in incentives for NCR — mostly tax credits — after talking with Nuti but without any guidance from Nuti as to what NCR was looking for.

Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin said city and NCR officials met once in February and determined additional meetings were necessary. Those additional meetings never took place.

“Technically, we had to fight our way to the table. NCR didn’t invite us to play” McLin said.

“I think they showed no indication that they wanted Ohio to provide them with any particular incentive,” said Strickland. “It was not a situation where this company was involved in an open, transparent effort to have competing sites provide them with different competing proposals.”

He said that Nuti told him that when he took over leadership of NCR that a decision was made to consolidate “various interests and facilities.”

“It was a matter of simply trying to consolidate their resources into a single location and that they tried to get an independent analysis of what was in the best interest of the company and reached the conclusion the Georgia site was the right (one).”

Georgia reportedly offered NCR a package valued at $60 million. Strickland said if there was any chance to reverse NCR’s decision “you better believe we would be more than willing to fully engage with Mr. Nuti.” He said, however, that $31 million offered by Ohio is a “pretty rich incentive.”

Strickland was guarded in responding to Sen. Jon Husted’s proposal that the Dayton Development Coalition and Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce put together a plan to use $31 million in state aide to create new jobs in the Dayton area to replace those lost by NCR’s move.

Strickland said Husted, R-Kettering, could introduce legislation to come up with such a package. He criticized Senate Republicans, including Husted, for removing millions of dollars from the Development Department’s budget in the version of the state budget the Senate is expected to approve later this week.

If the Dayton business groups came up with a “package where tax credits could be helpful in attracting jobs to the area, of course we would look at that. In terms of just having $31 million in cash, we did not have that to offer NCR,” Strickland said.

Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1608 or whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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