Branstad did this to us his first four terms in office Wharever possessed Iowans to hand him a fifth term is beyond comprehension.
At least in Illinois crooked governors are removed from office and put where they can’t hurt anybody. .Why do Iowans think it’s ok for the governor to sell off the state the way Branstad has done the entire time he’s been in office. Why

Nice way to spin good news into bad. The company is going to be building a $1.6 billion plant in Iowa (that’s Billion with a B) which in addition to the permanent jobs, will be providing jobs for a couple THOUSAND construction workers, which I noticed you failed to mention. Any tax breaks offered in the incentive package would a reduction or elimination in taxes paid, not a check written to them out of the state treasury. The alternative is that the company builds the plant in a different state and we get neither the taxes nor the jobs. It sounds like you resent Branstad winning this over Illinois and that we should have instead been good neighbors and let them have it?

Mr Hetzen,
I am fully aware that “tax breaks” means a reduction in taxes, not a check handed the company. I am also fully aware that companies require a lot of money in terms of goods and services—ya know. Infrastructure—which they won’t be paying for but the rest of us will.
We’ve got the track record on this. It’s called IBP.
We’ve also got the track record on this sort of activity on the local level. It’s called Coral Ridge Mall.
Iowa’s gain in this deal is 165 permanent jobs. And yes I know there’s a positive ripple effect in the local economy. But when local employers don’t pay their fair share in what it costs to keep them in business, the rest of us pay that. And then we get into this ugly thing called a downward spiral fueled by taxpayer revolt ‘cuz the rest of us are maxed out and there go the roads and the schools and the police and firefighters, and the DMV and public parks and nice retail stores and all those other things that employers like and the company pulls up stakes and we end up looking less like Iowa and more like East St Louis.
And the165 jobs go poof

And another thing, Mr Hetzen,
Demonizing people who live in neighboring states is not a winning strategy for a state like Iowa that is aging and losing population. Bad strategy, For obvious reasons.
Branstad has been demonizing Illinois for the last thirty years. And while that may play well in Resume Speed Western Iowa situated a hundred miles from the nearest gas station, it doesn’t play all that well in the fastest growing and most prosperous counties in Iowa where, guess what, a lot of people from Illinois live

the alternative is the plant, and the 165 jobs go to another state. Also lost, is what $1.4 BILLION IN CONSTRUCTION means to the state. It is incomprehensible what that infusion of cash into the state means. There is a multiplier effect of 5X to 7X. This is BILLIONS. For some reason leftist are just crazy about spending on infrastructure. Spending tax $ have a multiplier affect we are constantly told. But now it seems the multiplier affect from private $ don’t have the same affect. IF, If, if this plant is not built in Iowa there is ZERO economic affect……..forever. It would best if no govt entities had the power to engage in this activity, but that concept runs counter to the will of a self governing populace, and in the end that freedom must be protected.
This also is a great illustration of exactly what progressive political philosophy devolves to……everytime…………always……….ILLINOIS.

Illinois offered a more lucrative incentive package, but they were turned away because the tax and spend, debt ridden practices of the Democrat party in Illinois present such an uncertain economic climate the business was willing to forgo short term gain, in favor of a Republican ran govt that has made hard decisions on spending while keeping taxes from running wild.
Caterpillar is desperately trying to tell the Illinois govt that they must change their ways, because the Illinois situation is making it hard to recruit and keep quality people. http://www.wlsam.com/Article.asp?id=2144799&spid=

Mr Antony’s link is to an AP article on the WLS web site. The AP article is copyright 2011 and has nothing to do with the Orascom deal. It’s about Caterpillar Tractor, in early 2011, objecting to Illinois taxes and threatening to pack up their factories and move to some unspecified Outer Slobovia . The most telling sentence from the article is “While Oberhelman didn’t single out a specific problem with Illinois’ policies, Dugan said the recent income tax increase was major factor triggering the note.” The quarrel was over taxes and there is nothing in the linked article to back up anything in Antony’s post. And in particular, nothing in the article to justify Antony’s statement “because the Illinois situation is making it hard to recruit and keep quality people”
We had a similar incident last year when Thomas Cardella threatened to pack up his call centers and move to Texas because he didn’t like paying the taxes that fund unemployment benefits.
What’s going on with this fertilizer plant is an old tactic. It’s playing off one side against the other for short term gain. And Dorman raises a serious issue. Can we afford a governor who makes deals based not on what is good for the State of Iowa, but, rather, based on his hatred of the people who llive on the east side of the Mississippi.
If this deal is grounded in blind partisan politics, bigotry and stereotyping, then it’s a bad deal for Iowa

Pardon the bun, but whatever Branstad usually offers is a lot of fertilizer. The mention of Cardella’s tiff over unemployment taxes, makes me recall being on the recieving end of a lower tax rate for employers after the last recession because Branstadt wanted to “help out” employers who were being hammered by unemployment taxes after the proceeding economic turn down. Help them he did, but did he ever put the rates back where they belonged after they had gotten over the hump? Not a chance. Yet, Cardella continues to play “if you don’t help us out, we’re leaving for Texas” card. Well, in some things, I think it better to say, hit the road. Going head to head with the neighboring states continues a bidding war that makes little sense and damages the respectability of the states themselves. It becomes a “how low can you go” game that leaves us with all the problems and no money to deal with it. Just look over your shoulder at the meat packing industry, for instance, tell me why there have been so many raids by INS and why are they still finding foreign workers still there if these companies haven’t rigged the entire game for their own benefit and have little to offer the state of Iowa in terms of being good citizens and paying their fair share. We need to stop giving away the farm just to get a handful of jobs that likely won’t improve the condition of the workers or the state.

If I figured correctly the company got $8,484,848 for every permanent job created. If you add a 1000 construction workers it still figures out $1,201,716 per worker. Plus the profits will probably sent to Egypt. That is a whole lot of tax money that is going to have be made up by the rest of us. Because them workers payroll taxes are not going ot cover the expense of their jobs.

Ken Engledow,
We got hosed.
Of course we have to take into consideration the ripple effect of 165 permanent jobs. Except I have no idea how much these employees will be paid and I’m not sure I believe the 1000 construction workers will be employed
I guess I’ll have to wait for more information before I decide whether we got hosed or we got really really really really hosed

States competing for new business with tax incentives is nothing new. Happens every day.

Iowa has a six billion dollar plus budget per year. More than half of our entire budget goes to pay for “entitlements”. Liberal Democrats are the last people who should complain about creating jobs.