I can’t find my calculator or enough fingers or toes to figure out whether our guide is in error, or a decimal was somewhere dropped. I do feel certain that a former City Council member would have a very good idea of what can be done with $60,000 versus $600,000, versus $6 million.
However, if the devil is in the details, I am sure our tour guide referred to cubes UNLOADED, not transferred (transshipped). That sounds more reasonable, doesn’t it? I am no one’s idea of a tax lawyer, but I suspect the Intestate Commerce clause and/or Marbury vs. Madison would prohibit taxation of something going thru sealed whether it is headed for Houston or Hong Kong. Just a bit of a WAG but it is possible that the unloading tax jells because it counts as a type of excise tax. In fact, I think I remember our guide using the term “excise tax” but am not sure. – a. s.
Burnet is about 50 miles west of Austin,Flatonia is half way between Houston and San Antonio, so its several hundred miles across country from Burnet…Burnet is on x-SP territory sold to the city of Austin for future commuter rail line…I will send you some pics of the tourist line there,
Austin and Texas Central Rwy…In case your interested heres the web addr…
Sorry, but I have no idea. Matters of logistics, fowarding and drayage were not discussed.
Perhaps the estimated 41 cubes that are opened up have to be offloaded somewhere else, so that the shipper’s cube would not stay in the Global III facility. If it is unloaded within the city limits of Rochelle, then the excise tax, assuming it is that type of tax, could apply. Remember that Rochelle is a logistics hub and the cubes bound for the East Side industrial park at Rochelle could be brought straight to the warehouse or factory before the cube has to be taken off and unload
The info card we were given mentions 720,000 “operations” per year, but that is probably a hypothetical round trip counted as two separate operations. In other words, 360,000 “Round-Trip Equivalents,” [a term I just concocted], assuming the modes generally balance out, would give a quotient of about 1,000 ops. a day. This is the current capacity. I feel certain Global III does indeed go through the middle hundreds of ops a day, if not more, right now. IOW the 1,000 is probably the current capacity without expanding the stalls for trucks and cubes (which they’ve already allowed for and which I suppose would be necessary when they get above 1,000 round-trips per day). It being Saturday, our tour guide was surprised we saw as much as we did on our particular tour: a hoist op, a little freight-train assembly, and a guy trying to hitch a short cube onto his tractor cab. UP at Global III currently employs “only” 130 staffers.
If you hear that sixteen hundred number bandied about, it does not count the number of people required to construct Global III. MY BAD! [:(] and my misinterpretation. That figure does refer to the number of jobs allegedy created by the multiplier effect of more jobs requiring more retail, more schools, therefore more construction, more school teachers and store clerks, etc., etc., who, like the original employees require services, not to mention denitsts, doctors, insurance agents etc. etc. etc. A multiplier of roughly 12 or 13, multiplying 130 times multiplier effect, seems to be the assumption here, would yield around 1,600 jobsl and it is not all that unusual for a multiplier number to be of that magnitude.&n