SD, I am one that agrees with your cost/risk analysis of this project. There is no tax value high enough that can offset the damage done to the competitive free markets and government.

Janesvillean, its easy to be pragmatic with somebody elses’ money and your cost/risk evaluation means little unless you put up your own $9 million. Risk-takers in the venture capital arena seem to have a different opinion on the risk/cost factor than yours on this project, otherwise this firm would not be seeking government assistance. BUT, I'm not sure about that either, because this request for government assistance and capital coming at time of stock-piled private capital and record low interest rates should raise alarms among pragmatics with no weird crosses to bear. The pie-in-the-sky rhetoric by the CEO and company officials lead me to believe they wouldn’t take private capital if it were available. I would bet that if a local individual came forward and offered $9 million (the estimated cost of the hand-out) to invest in SHINE with the intention to offset and cancel this government deal but with the same promissory note other investors are in for, they would not accept it. They don't want more investors at this point to cut into profits. The CEO "saw a community that had been pummeled ecomically," my eye. They want our money. Free stuff. Welcome to the entitlement mentality.

As far as TIF districts go, yes they have been around for generations, but they are not the same tools they once were generations ago. Definitions have been re-invented and they have been lobbied beyond recognition and well beyond their original intent to revitalize aging blighted urban areas. In Wisconsin, they have become little more than rigging tools to tilt the system for wealthy landowners to encourage sprawl over farmland. When they do well, the captured tax revenue becomes a plaything slush fund for governmental officials and developers to fawn over.

jvillean said "To my mind, there is no such thing as a truly free market, and the democratic system should allow for public interventions in that market to benefit the people".
Holy Extreme Naïveté Batman! Who decides which "public interventions"? Nice euphemism BTW! I would prefer "gubmint intrusions". And who decides what benefits the people? You see, that's the fly in the ointment. Someone(s) in gubmint make decisions that affect the rest of us in the real world (usually in a bad way), with no special knowledge or skill, and certainly little or no accountability (can you say Community Reinvestment Act?). And my last question - how does one measure the results of gubmint intrusion? As in the Broken Window Fallacy, that which is unseen cannot be measured, and thus the damaging results of gubmint intrusion into private markets, while very real, is unmeasurable.

youkillme, you're a little wrapped up in your high-and-mighty rhetoric, and I'm not inclined to play into your philosophical or moral equations. The TIF district is simply a tool allowing public investment that has been around for a couple of generations, and is widely used -- though the rules vary by state -- across the country. It's not something suddenly sprung upon us. As a pragmatist, I evaluate it based on the cost and risk, much as laid out in today's print article. You deride that and prefer to make it a moral argument. Well, that's your own (kinda weird) cross to bear. To my mind, there is no such thing as a truly free market, and the democratic system should allow for public interventions in that market to benefit the people. What I will defend about the TIF system is that it enforces certain rules and builds in a lot of accountability and transparency. Without it, we would surely have much worse corruption, and the more insidious for being hidden.

Janesvillean, I've heard all of that before. When we start justifying government collectivism for private-for-profit enterprise (public investment per job is a cost worth the gain) based on a ROI in taxes - we've got some serious structural issues within our economy and morality. Let's face it here folks...particularly those on the right that preach a free market economy that are silent on this thread today. Not you SuperDave, at least you have the balls to write something "negative." Your silence is saying, GOVERNMENT IS THE SOLUTION TO ALL OUR PROBLEMS. The RAF's, Kaysbrew, feduptaxpayer, vato and the rest.

I see a great hypocrisy from the phony "be responsible and pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" anti-entitlement Right as well as my "free market good government democracy" 99% Left of which I am a member. Instead, they are beating each other up on stories about which opposition candidate or incumbent they can tear down the most. But where and when they can make the most difference on principle? Silence.

Many of these same folks scream about corruption and about taxpayer dollars being used against their party and beliefs, and the undermining of the free markets - but not to reform it and make it right - but to scream for their own cut in on the deal. What a shame. That's what I see and it's very disheartening. Until we start electing people who can differentiate between right and wrong and stick to those principles we will continue this wild expansion of an authoritarian plutocracy.

With two companies coming to the area, folks who will work at both plants will most likely live in Janesville vs Beloit. Beloit has most of the manufacturing and most of those who work in management live in Janesville, spend in Janesville and there kids go to Janesville schools. I am happy to see both companies come into the area

Gubmint has no business - zero - picking winners and losers in the private economy.

youkillme, in the real world it is often difficult to prove a negative case. We can never know whether in a world without subsidies Janesville could have been selected. But that world does not exist.
.
The legal test for TIF development is, however, just that. You can look up the language at the DOR.
http://www.revenue.wi.gov/pubs/slf/tif/c...
The "but for" test is the critical basis for valid TIF development.
http://www.revenue.wi.gov/pubs/slf/tif/5...
.
It seems that you are implying that Janesville should not have offered these incentives to SHINE, and hope to win the plant regardless. The real world situation, however, is that the competing cities, also in Wisconsin, had access to the same TIF legal structure as we do, and the development likely would have gone to one of them.
.
I do not myself know if the public investment per job is a cost worth the gain. It is difficult to know, due to confidentiality of negotiations, what other cities were offering and even, ourselves, what other factors were being weighed. Madison has adopted a public, viewable TIF policy, and I don't know whether Janesville has such a document; I think it would be a good idea. It would allow us to proceed within a framework rather than evaluating each case separately.
http://www.cityofmadison.com/planning/TI...

Theusual agreed, Look what was done for years to keep GM here. Training, government paid, new road government paid. The issue here is you need training and not finishing high school or having someone you know working there will not get you in. Business has changed you do need schooling just to get a foot in the door. Without at least a high school diploma you are going nowhere.

I hope a bunch of jobs come to Janesville. I don't care at this point the route a company takes to get here as long as they provide GOOD paying jobs.

Some people can whine that they are getting a free ride. All I can say to you is. LOOK AROUND YOU! If a 150 people can make and spend money in Janesville, I say yeah! Janesville.

An interesting concept for a company. We will see if they will be successful in the area. One can only hope.

Not to worry Labeler. You crack me up too. But unlike you, I feel good very about myself.... Just saying.

jvlborn. The jobs are great. Fan-tastic! But it's people like you who are partly responsible for the mess we are in. When you frame Americans who ask questions and are standing up for good government free market democracy as negative and then turn a blind eye to the corrupt means of wealth redistribution, crony capitalism because you feel a sense of personal gain, you are part of problem and doing a disservice to our country.

Sorry if that sounds negative.

Think about youkillme's name. Almost sounds suicidal..... Just saying.

youkillme, I am sorry for whatever it is that makes you so negative.

If you read the numbers even once,or knew the hope its brought to my unemployed and underemployed friends, you'd realize what great news this is for Janesville.

Janesvillean, so SHINE would not be coming here if it were not for the significant government assistance - is that what you are saying?

youkillme, the statutory requirement for TIF development is that it would not happen "but for" the subsidy available through the TIF. If it would have happened anyway, the TIF money should not be used.

So, curiously. If there was no tax zone credits, TIF capital, forgivable loan, (eyeroll) or land agreement (free land), etc., etc., would SHINE still take a shine to Janesville? Emmmmm.

I can hear a pin drop.