The Washington Independent does its homework

[avant1963]

Read it: http://washingtonindependent.com/22236/cars

“You look at the South,” Shelby said. “You take — not just Mercedes in my hometown — but BMW, Honda and all of them. These companies are flourishing with American workers made in America.”

But the flourishing of the transplants didn’t come without significant taxpayer help. Shelby’s Alabama, for example, secured construction of a Mercedes-Benz plant in 1993 by offering $253 million in state and local tax breaks, worker training and land improvement. For Honda, the state’s sweetener surrounding a 1999 deal to build a mini-van plant was $158 million in similar perks, adding $90 million in enticements when the company expanded the plant three years later. A 2001 deal with Toyota left the company with $29 million in taxpayer gifts.

Alabama is hardly alone. Corker’s Tennessee recently lured Volkswagen to build a manufacturing plant in Chattanooga, offering the German automaker tax breaks, training and land preparation that could total $577 million. In 2005, the state inspired Nissan to relocate its headquarters from southern California by offering $197 million in incentives, including $20 million in utility savings.

In 1992, South Carolina snagged a BMW plant for $150 million in giveaways. In Mississippi in 2003, Nissan was lured with $363 million. In Georgia, a still-under-construction Kia plant received breaks estimated to be $415 million. The list goes on.

[regfootball]

yup.

[Drew Dowdell]

Good, now calculate how much in "bailouts" the imports have gotten via their home government's socialized medicine.

[regfootball]

this could be the most fair piece i have seen on this issue for quite some time now.

[ellives]

So what we're saying is "We now know what these southern states are."

What we're trying to figure out, is the price.

[CARBIZ]

Westmorland says: "“We did that to get them in here, to create the jobs, to create the taxes, to put economic development into the area.”

Is this man really that stupid? If the imports are hiring in his district than that means they are selling cars and that would follow that GM/Ford are going to be selling LESS.

Ontario follows that sort of logic, by wooing Toyota wiht $120 million in tax breaks, Toyota hires 900 people while GM & Ford lay off 2,400. THERE IS THE MATH, PLAIN AND SIMPLE.

[Robert Hall]

These are surreal times.

Interesting that with the exception of Toyota in California with NUMMI, none of these transplants are in the West.

Edited December 17, 2008 by moltar