V&M project: Strickland gives area reason to hope

Mahoning Valley residents will not take kindly to governments in Girard and Youngstown failing to reach agreement on a land transaction that is so crucial to the proposed expansion of V&M Star Steel — not after Gov. Ted Strickland said last week that he has put the weight of the state and federal governments behind the project.

The two cities are on the verge of signing an agreement that would expand Youngstown’s boundaries to take in at least 160 acres of Girard land for income tax purposes. But the boundary expansion would not result in Youngstown grabbing all the income tax revenue generated by the workers in the new V&M facility. The cities would split 50-50 what the company would pay in corporate-profit taxes and what is taken out of the wages of employees in the new facility. The taxation rate would be 2.75 percent. Girard’s rate is 2 percent.

The governor, during a visit to the Mahoning Valley, expressed cautious optimism that V&M’s parent company in suburban Paris, France, will decide to proceed with the $970 million expansion that would ultimately create 400 good-paying jobs.

The reason for Strickland’s positive attitude? He has talked to company executives and believes that they will ultimately give the green light to the project.

Federal stimulus dollars

There’s another reason the Valley’s bid is difficult for V&M to ignore: The state is funneling $20 million in federal stimulus money for the project for the improvement of rail lines and to clean up the environmentally contaminated acreage in Girard that Youngstown would take over. Indeed, Youngstown has spent $5 million to buy parcels that were privately owned.

Although the company set an Aug. 28 deadline for the two cities to reach agreement on the land deal, officials have said that enough progress has been made in negotiations that the do-it-or-lose it order has been lifted.

To say that the negotiations have been contentious would be to ignore the realities that confront Girard officials.

Mayor James Melfi, while being firmly committed to the project, has expressed concern about 192 acres of his city becoming part of Youngstown. There are other points of contention that threatened to derail the project, but there will be ample time to conduct a postmortem of the project — after the French have made their decision.

For now, officials of the cities of Youngstown and Girard have only one assignment: Make it happen.

This project is bigger than any collection of public officials or any one political subdivision. It is huge, and at the end of the year, company officials in France will decide whether to proceed.

Their decision should not be influenced by what did or did not occur in the Mahoning Valley with regard to meeting the company’s demands. The decision-makers should also not be swayed by the disagreements between the two cities.

They need to hear the Mahoning Valley speak with one, clear voice that says: We want this project and will do whatever is necessary to make it a reality.

Mayors Jay Williams of Youngstown and Melfi of Girard had better be practicing their duet.