Longboat Key Letters to the Editor

Business incentives rob Peter to pay Paul

The Tube Dude, Scott Gerber, recently repaid $56,000 to Sarasota County.

He had received that amount as an economic incentive grant to expand his operation, and that expansion had not occurred.

He would have received another $44,000 — $1,000 for each of 44 jobs that the expansion was to have created.

After making the repayment, he stated he would have been able to create the 44 jobs if he had received the entire $250,000 that he had requested. He said that because he had not received the full amount, he could not purchase two Bradenton companies with 40 employees and move them to Sarasota.

That points out one of the problems of economic incentive grants given by government entities.

Buying two companies would not have created any new jobs. It would have done nothing for the economy — no new jobs. It would simply have taken 44 jobs from Bradenton and moved them to Sarasota at a cost to the taxpayers of Sarasota County of $250,000.

The only ones to truly make out would be the moving companies and Mr. Gerber. He would have, in effect, been able to purchase those two companies for $250,000 less than the listed price, courtesy of us. Everyone else who made money would have done so at the expense of someone else. Not a net gain.

Because so few companies that receive grants perform as promised, Sarasota now requires that grant recipients expand or add employees before incentive payments are made. That’s better, but it’s still robbing Peter to pay Paul, or taking money out of the region’s right pocket to put it in the left one.

Making Sarasota more attractive to employers and employees via better schools, better pay, a better environment would not only help bring new jobs, it would make Sarasota a better place for existing residents as well.

Rodger Skidmore

Sarasota

 No extras for Colony property

The developer is bailing out Colony owners by paying nearly twice what the units were selling for before they got themselves into the messy lawsuits.

Next of course, the developer will be bailed out by the commissioners when they give him the right to build twice as many units as existed because “it is the only way he can make it work financially.” What should happen is that payment be made based on the ability to build the same number of units as existed at the Colony. Even this is a gift, because the township continually extended “grandfather” provisions that already gave them more units. I believe that is Republican capitalism at work.

Everyone on the Key worries about traffic and the proposed doubling in size will generate a huge traffic addition. Build what was there — no gifts or bailouts.

Donald Semisch

Longboat Key