When city leaders lure a company like Amazon to town, elected officials sometimes give away the store. What I mean is, they may dangle rebates, tax discounts and other perks the rest of us never get.Critics call it corporate welfare. Fans say it's smart economic development that allows cities to compete.More than 200 cities are courting Amazon to host the giant's $5 billion secondary headquarters. With the promise of 50,000 new jobs, perks offered to the online shopping company pile up like packages on a porch.But what happens when a company doesn't keep its promises of new jobs? What happens when a company uses the process to hopscotch from one city to the next, always looking for a better deal?Officials are quick to brag when a company accepts a deal and moves into town. There's a happy groundbreaking ceremony. Then, eventually, a ribbon cutting to open a new building. Everybody lives happily ever after, right?I want to tell you about one company that came to town with great fanfare. But when it left, not much was said. Until now. As The Watchdog will show in this cautionary tale, not every deal has a happy ending.Meet Maxim IntegratedMaxim Integrated Products is a semiconductor manufacturer that moved to Farmers Branch in 2001 when it bought Dallas Semiconductor Corp. and the business campus it owned for about $2.5 billion. Its actual headquarters is in Silicon Valley.A decade later, Maxim announced a possible expansion on its campus near Belt Line Road and North Dallas Parkway. More jobs were promised.Farmers Branch officials worked to keep the company. They offered a package of economic incentives at the city level. These included two types of grants and forgiving all building and development permit fees.Farmers Branch placed Maxim into the state's enterprise fund, where more perks were available.In return, the company promised to retain 800 Farmers Branch jobs with an average yearly wage of $90,000 for five years, create an additional 175 new jobs, spend $2 million to improve existing facilities and make $20 million in capital investments.At the Dallas County level, commissioners approved a deal that gave Maxim a five-year 50 percent tax abatement on real and business personal property taxes.After the deal was done, the city agreed with Maxim's request to change the name of the main street through its campus to Maxim Drive.The groundbreaking on a $22 million "Lone Star Building" was supposed to show the company's commitment to Texas. But even before the 138,000-square foot building was finished, Maxim began shrinking. It started leasing buildings on its 18-acre campus to other companies.The Lone Star Building ribbon cutting came in 2012. Seven months later the company moved from leasing to selling its buildings. Continue reading...
Sometimes When a City Gives a Company Perks to Move in, Hearts Get Broken
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