Did Gov. Mike Easley hoodwink taxpayers again? That’s the way it looks in a Raleigh television station’s investigation of Workhorse Aviation Manufacturing.
TV station WRAL recently took a close look at the financing package that brought the new business to the Global TransPark, and turned up some unsettling information.
Melanie McTaggert, Workhorse president, says her company will manufacture components for aging military aircraft. McTaggert and her husband are retired military people living on a boat in New Bern.
Workhorse left a bad taste in Roy Fogel’s mouth. Fogel handles Jones County’s economic development. He and McTaggert finalized a deal – Fogel believed – that would take Workhorse to the Trenton area. McTaggert pulled out of the deal three hours before bids on the building for her company were to be opened in December 2004.
Six weeks later, in February 2005, McTaggert announced she would bring Workhorse to the Global TransPark.
Officials at the under-performing GTP were ecstatic. McTaggert promised she would bring in 50 jobs paying about $20 an hour. She said she needed three years to reach the 50-job peak.
Bells and whistles sounded! Hats were thrown in the air! Balloons went sailing into the clouds! Jobs were coming! Whoopee!
The woman had to be serious. After all, she was investing $2 million of her money in the company. The governor said so. She said so. The figure was reported by all shades and grades of news media, including The Associated Press.
Neither McTaggert nor the gov made any effort to correct the reports.
The hoop-de-do was repeated again last month when Workhorse held a ribbon-cutting ceremony. All the bigwigs were there preening for the cameras. Two million dollars of private money!
Then along comes WRAL, Channel 5.
The station did some digging and came up with interesting information. They asked McTaggert how much her company actually was investing. McTaggert, shown on camera, said she’d “pass on that question.” The reporter went to various and sundry government agencies in Raleigh and to the Neuse River Foundation in New Bern. Everyone “passed” to the next fella. No one, it seems, was anxious to spread much light on how Workhorse would be financed.
Here are the figures:
- $100,000 -- One North Carolina Fund
- $250,000 – Golden LEAF Foundation
- $ 29,000 -- Lenoir County
- $293,000 -- Global TransPark Foundation
- $ 56,000 -- Workhorse
TOTAL $728,000
That’s a long way from $2 million. Add $1.2 million from the GTP foundation to provide a building for Workhorse. That brings it closer -- $1,920,000.
Golden LEAF gave even more. Lenoir Community College benefited from the foundation to the tune of nearly $2 million to set up a class to train machinists. The first graduating class is expected to be Workhorse employees.
I’ll be you and I know a lot of people who would open businesses in Kinston if they had that type of financing.
The much bally-hoed Workhorse deal might not sound like such a good deal when taxpayers get a good look at how it really came down. Now, ask yourself how long it will be before Kinston or Lenoir County begins to count the property tax dollars that will spring from Workhorse.
Never. The GTP is state-owned. Neither the city nor the county will ever see a dime, except in tax on machinery. And I’m willing to bet, with McTaggert’s obvious creative financing ability, it might be a long time before anyone sees that, either.
Way to go, Guv. When is the next gubernatorial election?
Lee Raynor is editor of KinstonPress.com. She welcomes your comments at leeraynor@kinstonpress.com .
Want to know more?
Go here and listen:
http://www.wral.com/video/4403279/detail.html
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