Misuse of funds — 06/06/09

June 05, 2009 08:16 am

— Congress approved the $787 billion federal stimulus package to boost a sagging economy, but it is difficult to see how the national economy is going to be helped if that money is used to help the economy of one community at the expense of another community.
That’s exactly what will happen if officials in Georgia use stimulus funds to lure NCR Corp. from its hometown of Dayton, Ohio, to the Peach State. No wonder politicians in Ohio are crying foul. After all, the taxpayers of the Buckeye State are helping to fund the stimulus package every bit as much as those in Georgia.
NCR Corp. — formerly National Cash Register — is to Dayton what Ashland Oil Inc. once was to Ashland. NCR was founded in Dayton and grew to become a major corporation there. During its heyday, NCR dominated business life in Dayton and employed hundreds, much like Ashland Oil did in this community.
While times have changed and NCR is not nearly as large as it once was, it remains the world’s leading producer of ATMs. But it no longer is happy in Dayton. NCR announced this week it would move its headquarters from Dayton to the Atlanta area and open a separate manufacturing center in Columbus, Ga. The Columbus center will employ about 870. Meanwhile, the impact of the move on the economy of Dayton and of Ohio as a whole will be devastating.
So how did Georgia manage to lure NCR Corp. from Dayton? Well, Columbus plans to use $5 million in federal stimulus funds on buildings for the new NCR center.
That drew immediate protests from U.S. House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio and Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. Brown says stimulus funds should not benefit one local economy at the expense of another.
Brown is right. Stimulus funds should be reserved for creating new jobs, not stealing them from another community.