Over 7 million views and growing
Recently The Baltimore Post published an article regarding Under Armour’s planned logistical operations center built at Tradepoint Atlantic.
Then, we received the below email from TPA asking for help to revitalize this private enterprise company founded by two billionaire owners. One of the owners runs the Baltimore Ravens football team while his cousin it is mentioned in this article from Forbes detailing relationship between the two and their net worth.
Here is a quote from the article that will pretty much sum up the status of these two giants in the business world:
- Jim Davis is cofounder of Allegis Group, the world’s largest privately-held staffing company.
- He founded Allegis (then called Aerotek) in 1983 with his cousin Steve Bisciotti, who is also a billionaire.
Now you also notice there is no photograph of Mr. Davis, however if you look at the lower right-hand corner of our featured photo Mr. Davis is seated at the table, the second person from the left.
Now for we get into the actual backdrop of TPA’s request for our help or more specifically tax dollars (One half billion dollars when built out) we’ll need to set the backdrop of the movers and shakers behind this endeavor.
We have created a slideshow from a previous awards ceremony sponsored by the Dundalk Renaissance Corporation. Now hopefully some of our readers will be able to connect the dots from our slide directly to the DRC as you read the names and see the faces.
This article previously published in the Post may give you some more insight.
Now, we begin to connect the dots in the local players in this game, as publisher of The Baltimore Post, I had a rather interesting conversation with a very close friend regarding this topic. One of the questions centered around – how are we going to attract jobs without offering some sort of incentive to those companies that will provide those jobs?
I had to think for a moment then thought of the infamous Yorkway Development. Some of you may remember when then County Executive and future – lifelong Congressman – Dutch Ruppersberger attempted to seize the land under eminent domain and failed. He then tried an end around game by introducing legislation which also failed. The deal was formulated when Dutch along with his successor, Jim Smith bought the $1.5 million property for $22 million and subsequently demolished it for the developer.
Councilman John Olsezwski Jr, then drafted a PUD that allowed developer John Vontran to flip project over to Ryan Homes. Much more on that later.
My thought was to show the taxpayers will never recover the $22 million after consideration for the cost of education, police protection, fire protection and a host of other public services.
Here is one report may answer some of those other questions on the national level. The report was published by The Heritage Foundation and included testimony before the Subcommittee on Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management before the United States Senate on June 10, 2015.
Here is another report on the same subject. This one emanates from one of the leading authorities on the subject, Fords magazine.
This is a particular interesting quote from the article:
According to Good Jobs First, there are 514 economic development programs in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. More than 245,000 awards have been granted under those programs. I ask again, where is the outrage? The system is antithetical to the idea of free markets. A quarter of a million times, state governments decided what is best for producers and consumers. That should make us cringe. First, the government is inefficient at providing public goods, and it is terrible at manipulating the markets for private goods. But more importantly, those 514 economic development programs are almost all the result of insidious cronyism. Narrow business interests manipulate government policymakers, and those interests prosper to the detriment of everyone else. Free markets be damned.
Here is the backdrop regarding our featured photo as it pertains to the FedEx operation at TPA. This article appeared in The Baltimore Sun. In the article it references the total number of jobs FedEx is bringing to TPA.
All of this political and corporate fawning is based on a total of 400 jobs broken down in the following description: Package handlers – 180, managers – 70 and 150 drivers.
Photo Credit: The Dundalk Eagle via Pressreader.com
If you have trouble connecting the dots to the above slideshow of familiar faces we will draw the connection in another article.
Photo and Video Credit: Tradepoint Atlantic
Now after watching the video, you heard grandiose plans including an interview with the person with ties to the DRC the question remains how much of this is – truth or fiction. Also it should be noted that a recent study revealed that only 2% of the current workforce at TPA is local residents. Until we meet again as our motto always is, “You read; You decide.”
|
