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State awards $1 million grant to GE for locomotive development
Why do taxpayers have to pay a big company to do what they are supposed to do? If you dont create…get the hell out. Quit taking our money to do the job you should do. If you cant…someone will take your place GE.
$1 million dollars to stay in Erie, PA, eh?
All eighty! Between 2008-10 GE spent $83.5 million on lobbying and for the same period paid ZERO corporate income tax against $14.5 billion profit. Now they get the PA taxpayers to give them this “grant”. Wonderful. How many tax loopholes has your lobbyist got for you recently?
GE just announced it is closing a plant in Upstate NY and shifting production to Florida. New York apparently did not pay the requested “extortion money”. Big business has adopted tactics that use to be criminal.
GE rides again
It’s the General Electric Kickback Plan. Crony Capitalism at its best. The problem here is the union. It is putting pressure on the governor to do something to save the remaining jobs. Without the kickback, those jobs would eventually move to a right to work state unless the union started to make concessions. This whole deal has absolutely nothing to do with natural gas. GE gets money from the state. It pays no taxes because Immelt and Obama are partners in the same bed. Nothing to be seen here.
Let’s see what Gov Rick Perry will offer.
The GE “extortion money” aspect may be there, all right, but -beyond spurring needed innovation in fossil fuel use - don’t overlook Gov. Corbett’s drive to make PA the Saudi Arabia of natural gas production. He’s looking for markets for that gas, wherever they may be. Okay, that’s fine, but he refuses to tax the producers (imposing only a modest “impact fee” on their operations), while Pennsylvanians watch most of the economic benefits leave the state and once again suffer the aftermath of mineral exploitation. So we’ll take the $1M grant to GE, thanks.
Tony Rudman,Are you talking about Schenectady?
Mr Guse says, “The problem here is the union. It is putting pressure on the governor to do something to save the remaining jobs.” Let’s see: Gov. Corbett is a pro-business Republican who tried to reduce pensions for unionized state employees, tried to privatize the unionized state liquor stores and lottery system, and withheld $45 million from Philadelphia schools in an attempt to get unionized teachers to give up contract concessions. Does Mr Guse have evidence that the governor and the GE unions are even speaking to one another?
Mr. Trudo, I checked it on factcheck.org, and they commented that the statement that GE didn’t pay any taxes is completely false. It states that they do take advantage of several legal methods to reduce their tax burden, but then again, don’t we all?