After a long discussion at its three-hour meeting Aug. 16, the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees decided to give seven years of personal property tax abatements worth a total of $47,000 to General Electric for its new Ecorse Road facility.
Under the township’s rating system, GE actually qualified for six years, but was given seven years because of “the positive impact expected on the local area…” Supervisor Paul White wrote in a memo to the board.
The facility in the former Ashley Capital warehouse at 41965 Ecorse is expected to bring 50 jobs by Dec. 31, 2013 and a total of 130 jobs by Dec. 31, 2015.
GE said the jobs will have a beginning weekly average wage of $700 and increase to about $788 by 2014.
Wayne County Land Bank also declared this project a TURBO project, which cuts GE’s property tax in half. The Transforming Underdeveloped Resident-ial and Business Opportunities program focuses on underutilized or blighted property.
“GE made $70.7 billion – BILLION – in profits [in the last three years], remember that number when you vote, and they want $47,000 from us,” said Trustee Al Ostrowski, who was the only trustee voting against the abatement.
A letter signed by Supervisor Paul White on Aug. 12, 2010, after secret negotiations between GE and White, Economic Development Director Dan Swallow, and Executive Assistant/ Assessor Susan Ireland, locked the township into the seven-year deal.
Supervisor White said the county wanted this on a fast track and he was assured seven years was appropriate for personal property. “I signed the letter and I stand by it… It will bring 130 jobs to Van Buren Township, plus 1,100 at Grace Lake,” White said.
Board members voiced concern that if they went back on the deal made by White, GE could sue them.
“I’m very disappointed you made a pre-commitment without consulting with the board. To back out now would cause action against the community,” said Trustee Phil Hart.
During the discussion resident Cejay Marshall, who criticized GE for sending jobs out of the country, said he was defending GE “to the utmost” a couple of months earlier when the corporation wanted an abatement for its Grace Lake facility.
Marshall said he was hoping GE would be turning around its activities and be bringing jobs back to the U.S.
He warned the board that GE might want to set up a manufacturing plant in two years and, “They’ll be back knocking on your door… I don’t think they’d walk away for $47,000, after all the investments they are putting in.”
Addressing Supervisor White, he commented, “Down the road sometime you’re going to have to grow a pair.”
Trustee Hart also addressed Supervisor White: “If they come in and want to build a manufacturing plant, please do not make an agreement without consulting with the board. It can be negotiated.”
Hart said he got three phone calls on this agenda item and the community is very sensitive about giving tax incentives to a corporation that didn’t pay taxes.
He referred to a Wall Street Journal article that said GE was able to use loopholes and paid no income taxes.
Resident Diane Madigan asked if GE, with its 100% abatement on personal property taxes, would have to pay school taxes and Ireland replied that since it’s industrial property with the abatement, it does not have to pay any school tax.
Madigan asked if VBT notifies the stakeholders to advise them of possible tax abatements that affect them and Ireland said they are notified by certified mail. No one objected, Ireland said.
Madigan suggested that GE could give back to the school district and community with grants, uniforms, an emergency notification system, or tornado warning sirens.
Resident Karin DeMothe said she was impressed with Madigan’s comments and said when she worked at VBT, EQ was going out for an expansion and it reached out to the community. She said GE could give $50,000 to the schools, have a goodwill scholarship and help students get through school so they can come back and work for GE, such as DTE and Target do.
Hart asked Courtney Hill of GE if Aerotropolis is “weighing in on this,” since research and development on aeronautical technology is being done at GE’s Grace Lake facility and then being brought over to the Ecorse Road facility to try out the ideas to see if they will work.
Hill sidestepped the Aerotropolis question, but said GE is investing $28 million in the new facility in a high-risk commitment to make equipment that doesn’t exist now.
“Generating that model here, we do see this as creating a critical mass around aeronautics,” Hill said. “Wayne County and the MEDC made it so attractive… and there is proximity to Grace Lake.”
In order to grant a tax abatement, GE had to be granted status as an Industrial Development District and the board voted unanimously to make it district #23.
In other business at the almost three-hour-long Aug. 16 meeting, the board:
• Approved a resolution, on a 5-2 vote, to accept jurisdiction and maintenance of storm water drainage system constructed for the development of Statewide Boring & Machine, with Trustees Jeff Jahr and Al Ostrowski voting no;
• Unanimously approved writing and sending a letter to the County Commission and County Executive concerning the county’s mandate for local units of government to accept responsibility for private drainage systems or discharge permits for the businesses are withheld by the county. Treasurer Sharry Budd made the motion, which included going to the State with the problem, if necessary;
• Unanimously passed the resolution on Equality and Human Rights as requested by the US Department of Justice, with a revision – taking out the word “proactively” which would mean the township would have to take action other than the seminar that is being planned and possibly have to spend money. This resolution was requested by the Department of Justice following a personal dispute over a handicapped parking spot at Walmart in which a man made some racial slurs and keyed and rammed a black man’s vehicle. The “racial intimidation” charge against the white man is currently going through the court system;
• Approved hiring James Taylor as the new DPW Field Superintendent. Taylor has 22 years of experience with the City of Dearborn and holds various certifications. This is a budgeted position that has been vacant since March, when Tom MacDonald was promoted to DPW Director. Annual salary for this position is $56,000;
• Approved an agreement with Detroit Edison Company to pay $5,437.85 for two decorative street lights at Belleville Road at Belle Pointe Subdivision, which will be covered by the subdivision’s special assessment district;
• Approved extending without penalty the collection of the 2011 Summer Property Taxes through Friday, Sept. 30;
• Heard Belleville Reserve Police Officer Edward A. Smith explain the work of the Tri-Community Emergency Response Team program, where citizens are trained to help police and fire personnel in emergencies and in other ways. He asked for recognition of CERT by the board, as Belleville and Sumpter have done, but no motions were made. Trustees Jahr and Hart said Smith should make a presentation to the VBT Public Safety Committee. Committee chairman Michael Miazga is a trained CERT member and was supposed to set up a presentation for his committee, but has yet to do so;
• Removed from the agenda, following discussion at the work/study session, a resolution to abandon a portion of the Post-Robinson Drain to make way for the Hoosier Cogeneration Plant at One Visteon Way. The board agreed to have a work/study session on the subject;
• Heard Madigan ask about the emergency traffic signal that had been planned at the corner of Hull and Sumpter roads to assist fire equipment exiting Fire Station #1. “It was supposed to be installed three years ago,” Madigan said. No one on the board had an answer for her so White and Public Safety Director McClanahan will look into it; and
• Heard John Delaney talk about larcenies in the “northeast quadrant of the township.” He said three or four residents have lost trailers, an ATV, and a motorcycle. He said police tell them they only have three units on at night and can’t watch that area. Hart said he wanted reports on the way the shifts are staffed for a month. “I’ve heard this and I’m concerned. Are we filling the beats 100% of the time? I just want the facts.” He said he wants to know if staffing the beats is constrained by overtime rules.