Donald Trump bragged on Twitter about the “great deal” he reportedly struck with Carrier Corporation to keep more than a thousand jobs in Indiana, but new reports suggest that the company may have come to an agreement with him simply to get on the President-elect’s good side.
Carrier’s parent company does billions of dollars of business annually with the federally government, a huge incentive for them to play ball with the incoming administration, one member of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation suggested.
Former Indiana Lt. Gov. John Mutz (R) told the Indianapolis Business Journal on Wednesday that while he hadn’t seen the specifics of the deal between Carrier’s parent company, United Technologies, and Trump, he did not think the tax incentive package reportedly offered as part of the deal was enough to convince the company to keep some jobs in the Hoosier State.
“United Technologies is a gigantic international company with many different divisions and subsidiaries, many of which do substantial amounts of business with the U.S. government,” Mutz said.
An anonymous source with some knowledge of the negotiations told the Indianapolis Star that “Carrier wants to stay in good graces with the federal government.”
“Finalizing this deal was a show of good faith,” the source told the newspaper.
CNN Money reported government contracts constitute $5.6 billion in annual revenue for the company, which is about 10 percent of its total business. The U.S. government also funds much of the $1.5 billion United Technologies receives in research and development grants from its other customers, according to the same report.
“The dynamics are considerably different than they were even before the election. You’re talking here about a company that is trying to be competitive and also wants to keep their business with the government,” Mutz told the Indianapolis Business Journal.
According to a report from Fortune, while Carrier’s planned shifting of jobs to Mexico would have saved the company $65 million, United Technologies can expect receive $700,000 in state tax incentives “for a number of years” as part of the deal to keep some jobs in Indiana.
“The incentives offered by the state were an important consideration,” Carrier said in a statement.
As governor of Indiana, Pence is a member of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation alongside Mutz. That entity has the ability to approve tax incentives for businesses without legislative approval.
The president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, the union that represents workers at Carrier’s Indianapolis plant, told Politico that Pence wasn’t interested in any deal to save the plant’s jobs before the election.
“He pretty much wrote it off,” Chuck Jones told Politico. “He met with UTC reps at one point in time, but he wrote it off entirely.”
This is my biggest frustration with Obama. He refuses to personally interject himself into a story to change the narrative. Why not publicly mention that defense contracts are going to be reviewed if they move jobs out of the US? Why not kick some dirt and throw your weight around? His refusal to play the game is infuriating.
Personally I think a lot of Trumps victory can be traced back to the lack of punishment for the 2008 crash. Everything just kind of…went back to normal. The american people got screwed over, lost their homes, lost their jobs, and no one paid for it. No one was held accountable. Obama should have arrested every CxO and board member and trader on wall street, perp walked them with hoods on their heads to jail, siezed their assets, and given a press conference where every FBI and DOJ agent was instructed to drop everything and focus on bringing Wall Street to heel. Boots on necks.
There was no culpability for the 2008 crash. Sure the auto industry was saved, a lot of good things happened but there wasn’t any blood. And the American people want fairness, they want people who have done wrong to be held accountable. Obamas refusal to have a public display that sated the American peoples pain is something that handicapped him for the rest of his presidency. It left a lot of rage and pain in the air, waiting for someone who could tap into it and harness it.
Let’s see how much angrier they’ll get by the time Trumpster is done with 'em, because they ain’t seen nothing yet.
Morons.
Umm, I think you mean “morans”. And agreed.
I believe the technical term is “shakedown”.
Historically, it’s been a successful business model for many New York families…
Great! I guess when Apple and the company that makes Oreos become defense contractors, we can expect their manufacturing to return to the U.S., as well.
Zenith used to make TVs here. Perhaps they could do so again if they also agreed to make cruise missiles.