From the Journal Gazette
The Fort Wayne City Council made history Tuesday by granting the first tax break to a fast-food restaurant in the city.The council unanimously supported granting the abatement to a nearly $2 million McDonald’s restaurant at 7640 S. Anthony Blvd. The 10-year abatement will save the company $242,812 in property taxes.
Jim Lindsay, with the city’s redevelopment department, said the abatement is warranted because it is in an area the city is targeting for developers. Because it is near Southtown Centre, he said the city’s rules allow for the abatement, and he personally supported granting it.
We can now count on city council to give away our tax dollars to revitalize S.E. Fort Wayne with burger joints. That’s progress folks.
The project will bring 55 full-time and 25 part-time jobs to the area, according to Elissa McGauley, senior economic development specialist for Fort Wayne.
She said many of the jobs don’t meet the city’s criteria of paying 150 percent of minimum wage, but the fast-food company does offer many other important benefits to its employees, such as health care.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor most part-time employees do not enroll in healthcare benefit plans. At many McDonald’s franchises you have to wait 12 months or more before you’re eligible for healthcare. By then, most people have quit. McDonald’s offers health insurance to hourly workers at company-owned sites, but 85 percent of McDonald’s U.S. restaurants are operated by franchisees who are not obligated to offer insurance.
I take my kids to the McDonald’s on Scott road. The staff is always changing and most times it’s understaffed.
Nice job city council. You want fries with that? – DT
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Dan:
Nice to know we’re on “the same page” regarding this….another “great minds” moment?
B.G.
Isn’t McDonalds a multibillion dollar corporation?
It might have been OK if we had gotten Joan Kroc’s money for the Salvation Army.
But this is typical of the crew in economic development with Graham Richard. We take Fort Wayne dollars and give them away to multizillion corporations in other cities. We probably help some developer locally who handles the real estate and leasing of the building.
The liberals are always talking about hamburger flipping jobs. In Fort Wayne, the economic development people like McGauley think its economic development. These will go well with the housekeeping staff jobs at the new hotel and the other burger flippers at the Southtown Wendy’s that John Q. Taxpayer dollars are propping up.
Dan, when will you realize that the five Republicans on our City COuncil are “Big government” Republicans?
Small businesses cannot qualify for tax abatements in many circumstances due to the way the State law is written; however, our City Council is willing to give McDonalds a tax abatement and has given one to WalMart in the past.
Good grief…
Mike Sylvester
Also please realize that the tax abatement is not going to McDonalds; it is going to the person who purchased the franchise.
Per McDonald’s website the total investment for a McDOnalds franchise will be $655,750-$1,225,000.
So whoever is opening the franchise is spending about a million dollars and they are creating a large number of jobs that are well below the average wage.
Tax abatements are SUPPOSED to create jobs better then part time jobs at McDonalds.
This is an embarassing vote from our City Council.
In fact, it is so bad that I am now re-considering who I am going to vote for on Nov 6th. I am still currently planning on voting for Kelty, Horner, Larsen, and Bartels for sure. I was previously planning on voting for incumbent Democrat Shoaff; however, I am now considering changing that to Brightbill.
The State tax abatement law is SUPPOSED to be a mechanism that is used to attract good jobs to a community.
Our current City Council thinks that a part time job at McDonalds is worth investing a quarter of a million dollars in tax abatements.
This is also an example of Economic Re-arrangement… There can only be so many restuarants in a city; lets how that this McDonalds does not destroy a small locally owned restaurant or more…
Good Grief…
Vote Libertarian…
Mike Sylvester
Let see my special education students that can’t even count 2+2 will have jobs! Sure, the lude behavior and indecent acts of these youngsters in the southeast quadrant will be great for such a family friendly fast food joint! A real politican would have them built an addition to the Allen County Jail! In the past few days, I do believe that I have taught the Fort Wayne’s future most wanted! It is truly sad that dozens, if not hundreds, of area youngsters are lining up for the big palace!
Mike~ I could not agree more! I’m a republican, but I am sick to death of our republican leadership both at headquarters and on the counsel. I will be voting against some of these republican city counsel members. And if I could figure out a way to remove Steve Shine and his self-appointed “important people” surrounding him, I would do that too.
A lady wrote a letter to the editor called “back to the future – vote Kelty!” where she recalls memories of downtown when she was a child. When downtown was made of up large successful businesses, where it was safe, where it was a place to spend time shopping, eating, milling around on the weekends, etc etc… Now what do we have? Something that is resembling “pottersville”. Strip bars, gay bars, bad shopping, few good restaurants, worried about being mugged in the middle of the day, cheap housing… Yes. Take me back 50 years to where our downtown was prosperous, vibrant, active, safe… The democrats call this regression. So did Mr. Potter.
I am also not quite sure on the numbers Elissa McGauley is touting for employment numbers. If this place is going to create 55 full time jobs, by my reckoning, that would equate to 13 people on average staffing the facility 24/7. That does not even include the 25 part time staff. Has anyone ever been to a McDees that has ever been remotely staffed at this level? Are we being fed another set of screwy numbers in order to justify city council’s actions?
Ken
3- 8hr shifts a day *7 = 21 shifts a week
1 person 5 shifts/wk for 40 hrs
55 * 5 shifts = 275 shifts/week
275/21= 13.09 people per shift.
Isn’t Ellyssa McGauley married to John McGauley?
Wonder what he has to say about tax abatements for McDonald’s? Probably not as much as what he has to say about the mayor race where he switched parties.
Hi Everyone:
Before your discussion of my wife’s job devolves into a debate over whose mama wears what brand of combat boots, let me clear a few things up.
* Yes, ELISSA McGauley is my wife. She’s a lovely lady. You should meet her sometime, or at least find out what she does.
* My wife does not now, nor has she ever, set tax abatement policy for the City of Fort Wayne. She accepts applications for tax abatement and presents them to City Council to approve or decline. She administers the tax abatement program, but has no authority to grant or deny tax abatement. She works for the city; she is not a policy maker or an elected official.
* The McDonald’s at Southtown is locally owned, not corporately owned, by a man who put up at least seven figures of his own money to take a shot at making it at Southtown. Nobody has wanted to put local money into Southtown for a long time. I personally hope he does very well.
* I never left the Republican Party; I left a candidate about whom I had – and still have – grave doubts. As a matter of fact, I worked with chairman Shine on a project just last week. I never endorsed anyone else for Mayor. Others did, but I did not.
* On the matter of my personal position on tax abatement or anything else, I love to talk policy and I’m open to doing it anytime. If you guys want to get together sometime and ask me anything, I’m game. Pick a time and a place and I’ll be there (try to avoid Tuesdays, my wife has to attend City Council and I’m on babysitting duty).
I don’t think a moderated blog (that is not intended as a slam, Dan) is the place to do it. Let’s get together face-to-face so you can find out what I’m really doing here.
Our City Council is ridiculous. Crap like this wouldn’t happen under the leadership of Libertarians, or anyone else with a little common sense.
What about Doc Crawford?? How could he let this happen?? Doesn’t he realize the health implications?? A good responsible nanny wouldn’t LET the taxpayers have french fries (for their own good of course).
John,
Since I made a statement regarding your wire, I feel I should respond. It would be moronic of me to make any statements at all about the character of your wife, or her intentions, seeing I do not know her. I was questioning the math behind the numbers used to justify the issuance of the tax abatement. She was the accredited source of the information in the article, and I understand now that she probably was not the source of the initial information. It was just her job to present the information as it was presented to her.
Personally, I feel that taking action to help the economics of the southeast part of Fort Wayne is a good idea, and I can somewhat agree with the council in taking this action. But a McDonalds as an anchor business? I’m not sure this is the best. Then again, it might be the only offer on the table. What I am uncomfortable with however, is using figures that don’t add up logically. 55 full time plus 25 part time employees is a very large workforce to support at one location, and I do not see how this could be accurate. Using these numbers as justification to grant the abatement didn’t sit square with me, not the abatement itself. In my day job, I have to ferret this stuff out all the time. My pinfeathers are still standing up over the financial numbers on the Harrison square project given by the City Council. When I saw this, I reacted and took a shot at a name in an article. I apologize for insinuating your wife doing anything out of place. I’m sure she is a lovely lady.
Sincerely,
Ken
Ken:
No offense taken. I don’t even think you insinuated anything about her. It’s not hard to see how it might look as though the person at the table is the person pushing the policy. But in Elissa’s case, she brings the application to Council and they make the “yes” or “no” decision.
All I can say about the job numbers that they are talking about is that the city does closely monitor compliance with the employment levels that are pledged as part of a tax abatement. I believe that there are provisions for taking back incentives if a company doesn’t comply with the terms of its agreement.
Not saying anything about the project one way or another, but just offering a theory. The city is all in on Southtown and it is succeeding rather nicely. I talked to the manager of the Wal-Mart earlier this week and he said that business at the Southtown store is as good as it is at any of their other stores in town.
Perhaps (since I don’t know) supporting the McDonald’s project was a way of trying to seed more development in the surrounding area? The McDonald’s is on an outlot tied to the K-Mart across the street. I’ll bet that since the McDonald’s is locally owned, that the theory behind providing it with incentives is that success there might attract further investment in the K-Mart center? Again, just a theory since I’m not involved.
- John
Wherever McDonalds goes, so does Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC, etc….better have plenty of ink in the abatement pen.
Build it with tax revenues and they will come. Build it with tax revenues and you can economically justify the darnedest investments – like
(My Investment Dollars) + (Tax Revenue Dollars – from abatements, TIF funds, CREeD, et al) = Enough Dollars to Enable a Profit
Leave out the Tax Revenue Dollars and you come out a loser.
This is how government props up marginal busness dealings in the name of redevelopment. It has always been and always will be “BUNK” – Witness our dealings with MicroStandard, Downtown Hilton, Burlington Air Freight, Midtowne Crossing – and now, Kitty Hawk Aircargo – PLUS the guaranty of profits to the White Lodging Group for 20 years at Harrison Square! John B. Kalb