After $90 Million in incentives from Kasich, American Greetings delays HQ move

By On November 30, 2012 · 13 Comments

Last month we found out Diebold would not be building a new Corporate Headquarters despite receiving tax incentives from the Kasich Administration for exactly that purpose.   The massive package of $55 million in tax incentives was touted as one of Kasich’s crowning economic development achievements.  Master negotiator John agreed to give them everything they wanted, and all Diebold had to do in return was construct their new HQ campus and agree not to lay off more than 20% of its Ohio workforce.   The company failed to do both.

This week,  Kasich saw another jewel of his economic development crown get tarnished.  American Greetings received a whopping  $93.5 million in State incentives to move their headquarters from Brooklyn Ohio to Westlake.   Shortly after the incentives were announced, the company proceeded to lay off workers and give CEO Zev Weiss a big raise.   This week American Greetings announced it too would be delaying the construction of its new headquarters because the CEO and his family members are trying to buy the public company and make it private.

As of this morning, JobsOhio still hasn’t pulled down the ad with Weiss praising Kasich for his economic development assistance.

 

Evangelize!
  • Print
  • email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
 
  • http://www.facebook.com/brian.hester.127 Brian Hester

    So, what you’re saying is that they AREN’T moving at the speed of business?

  • http://twitter.com/schmangee Angie Schmitt

    I’m glad they aren’t moving to that sprawl campus at taxpayers’ expense. I think in economics they call this “rent seeking.”

  • dmoore2222

    Jeeez. Once you take the auto industry out of the mix things don’t look very good for Johnny Jobs’ job numbers. Let’s see. Why would’t companies be dying move to a state whose governor and legislature can’t figure out its school funding, iare hostile toward women, disdain working class people, are anti-gay marriage, would let one of it’s major industries go bankrupt, turned down almost a half a billion dollars for high speed rail, engaged in voter supression, intends to sell off valuable state assets, and has confusing and duplicative economic development organizations? Because they don’t want these hassles.

  • DublinIrishBob

    So this is not a good thing, right? Oh Governor, what is your next act?

  • disqus_wsMUHTg2G8

    So did you decide to throw this out there the same day it was announced that IBM would hire 500 in Columbus? I’m a Kasick hater but….

  • http://plunderbund.com Joseph

    Nope. But you bring up a good point. Do you think Kasich planned the IBM announcement today in order to distract from the American Greetings debacle?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Carrie-Preston/100000765994211 Carrie Preston

    Gee since they did not do what the incentives where for, then they should pay the whole 148.5 million back to the state and the state needs to put it into public schools since they took the funding away from schools saying they could not afford to pay them

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bg-Mcqueen/1098191790 Bg Mcqueen

    why am i not surprised? they lie and Kasich’s team probably got some…all out for themselves…every penny should come back to the state!

  • http://twitter.com/Think270 Think.

    Can we really believe the news that IBM will be hiring 500 in Columbus, or is the announcement just another empty promise from Johnny?

  • http://plunderbund.com Joseph

    The short answer is no. These are job commitments that may or may not pan out. More importantly, we haven’t seen what Kasich has promised IBM to open this center or the terms set by JobsOhio and Development.

    How much is it costing the state for these potential 500 jobs? what happens if IBM fails to hire all 500 people? Or if they only hire 20 people? Of if they decide to move the operation to Bangladesh? Do they still get the money?

    This is the main problem with JobsOhio and Kasich’s strategy for development: the lack of transparency means Ohioans have no information about the massive amount of state money being doled out in deals by the Governor.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000630486513 Cathy Minard- O’Shea

    Why does this still happen? Since WHEN does this work for ANY community? Every time I see this kind of ‘incentive’ package put together for some company I cringe! In the end it ALWAYS bites them in the A**!

  • dmoore2222

    This doesn’t pass the smell test.

  • http://ptrlhd.com/ petrol head

    Great post, thank for share! I will return this blog to read more useful posts. Thanks!

Looking for something?

Use the form below to search the site:


Still not finding what you're looking for? Drop a comment on a post or contact us so we can take care of it!

Visit our friends!

A few highly recommended friends...

Archives

All entries, chronologically...