Want to pay $35 million to help T. Rowe Price destroy our wetlands in the middle of a drought? Sounds like a deal that's too good to be true right? Well I guess if you are T. Rowe Price it's a good deal. It is yet another pre-emptive bailout for another corporation poised to do something ludicrous and destructive with our money. They are offered our tax money to pull off the ultimate shell game.
Get this, they are being offered millions of State and County dollars to create new jobs in Florida, but wait, follow the ball, they are already in Florida. They are in Hillsborough County to be exact, and they are planning to move to Pasco County. So, just in case you lost sight of it, they are moving from one place in the state to another and taking money for creating new jobs in the same state in which they are moving. Now if they moved from another State to here, maybe it would make sense, but instead they have actually threatened to move to another State from here, if they don't get the money. It kind of sounds like extortion: "Give us millions or we'll leave the State". And what about the loss of jobs in Hillsborough County, when they leave? And while we are speaking of lost jobs, what about the 288 job cuts T. Rowe has announced.
This article appears in Apr 22-28, 2009.