CEJ along with members of Metro Justice, the WNY Area Labor Federation and the Rochester and Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation, and Teamsters Joint Council 46 held a rally in Rochester prior to the County of Monroe IDA (COMIDA) board meeting on Tuesday February 21 to request that the board end its tax break agreement with VWR and look into getting back the nearly $1 million VWR has received.
We went to Rochester to follow the money IDAs in Erie and Monroe County have handed to VWR over the course of decades. VWR has collected tax incentives from the ECIDA since 2001. When their last deal ended in 2011, they closed their warehouse in Tonawanda and laid off 41 workers. Meanwhile, VWR got tax break deals from COMIDA in 2001 and 2008 to expand their warehouse in Henrietta and create 7 new jobs.
As Richard Lipsitz, political affairs coordinator for the Teamsters Joint Council 46 and WNY Area Labor Federation president, said at the rally: “VWR has been doing deals with the Erie County IDA to avoid paying their fair share of taxes since the 1970’s. What they’ve promised in return – JOBS. But, just as they’ve done in other parts of the country, the minute the tax break ran dry they shut down the jobs. They’ve likely had this plan for years, because they’ve been racking up tax breaks in Monroe County since 2001, expanding their warehouse there in preparation for the Tonawanda shutdown. It is time for COMIDA to end its agreement with VWR.”
VWR, which recorded $3.6 billion in sales in 2010, is an international distributor of scientific and laboratory supplies and chemicals and is owned by Chicago-based private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners.
VWR’s pattern of job shifting extends beyond New York. In Brisbane, CA, VWR plans to close its warehouse, putting over 60 long-time employees out of work and plans to build a new warehouse 300 miles away in Visalia, CA, where it is eligible for multiple incentives and tax credits. VWR’s move was subject to a Commission of Inquiry led by Congresswoman Jackie Speier and State Treasurer Bill Lockyer.
CEJ’s executive director Allison Duwe, WNY Area Labor Federation’s president Richard Lipsitz, and Metro Justice’s president Paula Hansen as well as a few Occupy Buffalo folks also spoke during the board meeting’s public comment period, calling on COMIDA to end its tax break deal with VWR.
Once the public comment period was over, however, the board rushed through the meeting to approve several project applications, with hardly any discussion about what the job creation would be or how much these jobs were paying. Representatives from each company were present in order to answer questions but there never seemed to be any areas of concern. Along with the new projects approved, there were several existing projects requesting more funding. These projects alone totaled over 2 million dollars. No questions asked, money granted.
Along with our statewide partners, we will keep the pressure on COMIDA to end its tax break deal with VWR and make sure that we get our money’s worth.
To see press coverage, please visit the links below.
YNN:
http://rochester.ynn.com/content/top_stories/574517/are-ida-tax-breaks-a-good-investment-/
The Democratic & Chronicle:
WNED:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment