Apple Deal In Trouble??

Holy crap!! As I was getting my cup of coffee this morning at my local 7-11 around 5:20, I happened to read the front page of the Statesman, it said, “Apple deal 'in peril' over delays in approving incentives.” Are you kidding me! I actually had to stop and read it again to make sure I caught that right.

                Ok, Travis County Commissioners Court, what is the big deal? Companies, like Apple, don’t just decide one day to build huge campuses and offer to a city and county, 3600 jobs over a ten year period, without some kind of tax incentives thrown in to sweeten the deal for them, the company. In my research today I did find that Austin apparently strives itself on the ability to get companies to relocate here without offering many incentives. But come on! It’s not like Apple is asking for all that much from Travis County as far as I’m concerned.

                Here is the deal: Apple wants to invest $304 million dollars on a facility here in Austin and in the people of the greater Austin area. Decisions like that are not made lightly and require years of research, development and capital. The total government incentives that Apple is looking for is $21 million from the state’s Texas Enterprise Fund, which is, “A ‘deal closing fund’ that has the flexibility and financial resources to help strengthen the state’s economy”, according to Governor Rick Perry’s site. The deal on the table is also for $8.6 million in tax incentives from the City of Austin, and here is the hang up, the $5.4 – $6.4 million from Travis County. Like I said, not really a drop in the bucket, compared to the total money invested by all of the parties involved and the huge boost in our local economy.

Now, I will play devil’s advocate for a moment and give the “other side” its fair shake. According to the Statesman, “Bill Aleshire, an attorney and former Travis County judge, and Ed Wendler, an Austin-area developer, picked through the county's draft final contract with Apple, pointing to parts of the contract they said will allow Apple to fall short of the requirements by the Commissioners Court. Apple "had it rigged so they could not comply with the contract yet end up with county staff basically renegotiating the terms that they would have to comply with," Aleshire said. "I just thought that was a major flaw. It showed up in several ways in several places." With that being said, I don’t understand why anyone would wait to bring up flaws this late in the game, after the Commissioners Court already gave the deal their blessing back on April 17th.  

Well that’s all the time and room I’m going to give the other side. I thought I should be fair though, and let you the reader, make a decision based on fact, not just my opinions. I am all about corporate expansion and the creation of jobs though. Especially, the entry-level help-desk workers that this deal promises to employ and not to mention all the trades jobs this kind of a deal brings to an economy. Everyone has to start somewhere, and Apple is saying that the jobs will pay around $34,000 a year. Not bad, especially when you are one of the approximately 7% among our unemployed. Those wages will pour so much more money back into this economy then Apple could ever take out.

  I’m also for the tax breaks and incentives that a government must provide, especially in this day and age, to those companies that want to expand. Apple could go anywhere they want, they are choosing here, I would hate to hear that the deal fell through based on a $5-6 million question that no one really has the answer to. If the attorneys for both sides can come to an agreement that works for everyone, then great! But let us not lose the deal over attorney word jockeying.

Update and Fellow Blogger Link

    Here we are again, looking to find the purpose and meaning behind the politicians and the laws that they pass.

    Before I start another discussion, I just want to update everybody on  the current state of the Planned Parenthood debate that I last posted. According to the dailycaller.com, "The organization filed a lawsuit against the Texas Health and Human Services Commission in federal court this week, seeking to prevent enforcement of a new rule that excludes their affiliates from participating in the state’s Women’s Health Program...Unless the lawsuit is successful, under the new rule, on April 30, Planned Parenthood will no longer be able to participate in the program." So, for all of the like-minded people out there, lets hope that the judge assigned to this case will be impartial and ethical.

    As I was reading through most of my fellow classmates blog entries, I came across a discussion about the WIC program here in Texas, and how even that program is in jeopardy of losing funding. Surprisingly I had not read anything about this current matter; also I found it interesting how it parallels the same problems that Planned Parenthood is having. If you would like to read the entire post please click on the link, left of the blue cognizance blog, M. Kelly is the author, and she has definitely brought yet another public funding issue to light. This is just another example of why I can't in good faith, stand beside my fellow Republicans on a situation like this.

    What is going on in this state? Have the right-wing conservatives lost their minds? There is no way that there is not enough money "just lying around" to fund these beneficial programs for the most needy in the state. Is it not our job, our obligation as Americans, and certainly as Texans, to provide the indigent, a very simple and basic health care need? Especially, when it saves us all money in the long run. All of this, in the wake of a national unemployment rate that is lowering and the city of Austin becoming one of the fastest growing job markets in the country. There should be more than enough money to fund whatever "WE THE PEOPLE" want to fund. I believe that the lawmakers forget that they work for us!

    Until next time...