Union concessions big part of $409 million incentive package in failed bid
Podcast Episode
JANESVILLE — Concessions by United Auto Workers Local 95 accounted for more than half of the state's $409 million incentive package that failed to convince General Motors to park small car production at its shuttered Janesville plant.
The failed bid to save jobs in Janesville is being heralded as an incentive model that's helped retain Mercury Marine jobs in Fond du Lac and expand the workforce at Oshkosh Corp., the recent winner of a new multibillion-dollar military contract.
"Everything that we were able to get into the budget came about because of General Motors," state Commerce Secretary Richard Leinenkugel told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The incentives that Wisconsin offered to GM were detailed in more than 300 pages of documents that the Journal Sentinel obtained under the state's open records law.
The Wisconsin package fell far short of the $1 billion that Michigan offered for new small car production in Orion Township and job guarantees at a dozen other plants in the state.
The Wisconsin package included nearly $163 million from state and local governments, and the balance of $246 million came from private sources, including Local 95 in Janesville.
The state was willing to contribute $115 million. Rock County chipped in $20 million, and the city of Janesville added $15 million plus a $10 million commitment to take over the automaker's wastewater treatment plant.
In addition to the UAW concessions, Dean Health Care and Mercy Health System offered GM a $24 million discount on health care costs, and Alliant Energy proposed more than $8 million in energy savings.
Incentive details
Details of Wisconsin's largest economic incentive package—nearly $409 million—offered to General Motors during the bidding war with Michigan and Tennessee over the location of a small-car factory:
State and local governments: $162.95 million
-- $100 million in Enterprise Zone tax credits
-- $10 million in forgiveness of prior economic-development incentive penalties
-- $5 million energy grant
-- $20 million from Rock County
-- $15 million from Janesville
-- $10 million Janesville commitment to take over GM's wastewater treatment plant
-- $2 million from Beloit
-- $951,000 from U.S. Department of Labor for training at Blackhawk Technical College
Private: $246.04 million
-- $213.14 million in United Auto Workers Local 95 concessions
-- $24 million from health care providers/insurers over five years
-- $8.4 million from Alliant Energy Corp.*
-- $500,000 in local, private company contributions
*The value of the Alliant incentive was not disclosed but was calculated based on other incentives disclosed by the state.
Source: State of Wisconsin Janesville task force presentation to GM
Sep 16, 2009 at 2:34 p.m.
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Opinionsforfree, your opinions have to be free because no would pay for them that is for sure. The Soviet Union? If Obama turns the US into the Soviet Union, you won't be able to elect someone else - duh. So, clearly YOU don't even believe your own lie.
Sep 15, 2009 at 2:28 p.m.
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It's good to see the union realized they needed to make their own cut backs. It's just too bad it didn't help.
Sep 15, 2009 at 2:12 p.m.
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To all the people who criticize the workers at GM I hope you didn't fail to read the headline !!! I find it ironic that there are no comments about the huge concessions the workers made in the comments. Usually there are so many negative comments about the workers. Now they write about the concessions they made and all the complainers disappear back into the woodwork.
Sep 15, 2009 at 1:23 p.m.
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Any deal with the devil is still a deal with the devil. Good thing the State of WI and Local 95 weren't taken advantage of again by GM. Any deal with the devil will eventually land you in hell no matter what the lies are up front.
Sep 15, 2009 at 1:10 p.m.
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just so the ones that are curious as to who is mowing the parking lot.....he is a contract laborer from an employment agency. reason he is doing that? because things have to be kept up and they were getting complaints about tall weeds.
Sep 15, 2009 at 12:19 p.m.
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The bid failed. Lets get over GM and move on! There are plenty of other companies the state can scare into leaving.
Sep 15, 2009 at noon
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justintimberlakerules, I think its time for you to find your meds. There is noway in hell Obama will be reelected. He is a great speaker, but lacks balls or brains
Sep 15, 2009 at 11:57 a.m.
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Pete - Check out this video at the 1:05 mark. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpqkIdzK2...
Sep 15, 2009 at 11:47 a.m.
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Uuhhh, Van Jones was fired. And that has to be one of the most grammatically incorrect posts I've seen in awhile. Keep it up!
Sep 15, 2009 at 11:47 a.m.
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Pete - You know what I find amusing? No, it's not your radical right wing polotical views or the fact that you keep making the same posts over and over and over. The thing that amuses me about you is that every morning when you wake up for the next 3 1/2 years you are going to be angry. Then just when you think it's going to get better you're going to find out it's going to be another 4 years of being angry. Sucks to be you and everybody that has to live with you.
Sep 15, 2009 at 11:42 a.m.
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Obama is a one term president. I just can't live with the fact that when he is voted out of office he will have turned our nation into the soviet union
Sep 15, 2009 at 10:37 a.m.
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Just curious . . . Is Briggs union?
Sep 15, 2009 at 10:18 a.m.
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Everyone should stop worrying. Everything goes through cycles and this is just the "death" part of the cycle. It's all perfectly natural.
Sep 15, 2009 at 10:14 a.m.
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ihavealife; NO disrespect to those workers - but if thats true the new CEO of GM should just quit today & close all the doors of every plant. There is NO excuse for that kind of waste.
Sep 15, 2009 at 9:28 a.m.
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I wonder how much money per hour parking-lot mowers make? That's a booming business! --- I wonder what union is representing the workers?!!! I'd also bet that the parking lot mowers get tallied as a job "saved or created" from the stimulus bill.
Sep 15, 2009 at 8:16 a.m.
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The Gov. run's GM now that should say it all
Sep 15, 2009 at 8:13 a.m.
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I say we put all our efforts into making Cheese and Beer
Sep 14, 2009 at 11:44 p.m.
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Michigan will never recoup $1 billion worth of anything from GM.
Sep 14, 2009 at 10:20 p.m.
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uuhh...Zippy, those dumpsters are empty and where Waste Management is allowed to store them. all the good stuff was shipped out by the end of June.
Sep 14, 2009 at 8:15 p.m.
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I wonder if there's any cool stuff in those dumpsters behind the guy mowing the parking lot?
Sep 14, 2009 at 8:06 p.m.
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Why the hell was nothing offered to United Industries in Beloit. They left and no one cared at all. They offered no buy-outs at all like all the GM workers were offered huge ones.
Sep 14, 2009 at 7:10 p.m.
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as far as i can see, what Pete siad is relavant to this article has nothing to do with it at all. it IS called corporate welfare. the corporation wanted as much as it could get from whomever. SO Michigan went into hock for the next 40 plus years to get something that may last 5 yrs. better them than us. i've read articles that have said Michigan may never recover from that bid. it had nothing to do with race or green economy. speaking of being green, before this plant shut down, it WAS the greenest in the GM system. It simply was GM wanted as much as it could get from whomever. Corporate Greed!
Sep 14, 2009 at 6:25 p.m.
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Pete- I have no idea what you said.
Sep 14, 2009 at 5:48 p.m.
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Van Jones was Green Jobs Czar.
Sep 14, 2009 at 5:37 p.m.
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It's called corporate welfare, and should be banned.
Sep 14, 2009 at 5:31 p.m.
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It goes to show that the incentives passed by the state were not only for GM. they did this to retain and attract other big business. maybe after this article some people will check out what they have passed in more depth. after all, it kept Merc in state and is helping Oskosh Truck to train new people they need.
Sep 14, 2009 at 5:12 p.m.
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Yes. Do you have any other dumb questions?
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