MAHONING VALLEY Officials offer plan for CSC

With a deadline three weeks away, lawmakers are scrambling to find state help for the steel mill.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
WARREN -- Three state legislators presented a plan to Ohio Department of Development officials today that they believe could help save CSC Ltd.
Rep. Anthony A. Latell Jr., of Girard, D-67th, said he and two other lawmakers are proposing that the state add its guarantee to the federal Steel Loan Guarantee Program to assure financial institutions that they won't lose money if they lend to the troubled steel bar plant.
Rep. Daniel J. Sferra of Warren, D-66th, and Sen. Timothy J. Ryan of Warren, D-32nd, have joined Latell in the proposal. Latell said they hope to discuss the plan with Gov. Bob Taft, who is scheduled to visit this area Thursday.
CSC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, and its lenders have set an April 13 deadline for its sale as a whole. After that, officials said, it could be auctioned in pieces.
The plant employs more than 1,300 people, and subcontractors at the site employed about 800 more when the mill was operating.
Lenders' refusals: Lenders have refused to provide the capital CSC needs to operate, even though the company was approved for a $60 million federal loan guarantee last fall.
Company officials have said lenders believe there are too many loopholes in the guarantee plan and it covers only 85 percent of the total, leaving 15 percent of the lenders' money at risk.
The company has at least two prospective buyers, and CSC employees have two prospective business partners for an employee stock ownership plan.
Latell said it's likely that any one of those would-be partners could find a way to cover the 15 percent.
The lawmakers' plan would put the state's backing behind the federal program and would kick in only if the federal government refused to honor its part of the guarantee. In that case, the state would stage a legal battle on the lenders' behalf, Latell said.
A look at plan: The plan would cost the state money only if it lost that legal battle. In that case, the lawmakers are proposing that the state use one year's interest from Ohio's $1 billion rainy-day fund to repay the lenders.
"We give millions of dollars of benefits to entice companies to come to Ohio, we travel to other countries, we travel across the country, to bring in 1,000 jobs. I'm just asking that we do as much to save more than 1,000 jobs at CSC," Latell said.
The lawmakers are urging area residents to write and call state officials to voice their support for the plan and to encourage others from around the state to join them.
CSC finished steel production Friday and has a small crew of workers mothballing equipment.