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Trustees: $20M business relocation plan at risk with state cuts
TOWNSHIP TRIES TO SECURE INTERNATIONAL COMPANY
By Elise Franco
Austintown
State budget cuts could jeopardize efforts to relocate the headquarters of a multimillion-dollar company to the township, officials said.
Trustee Chairman Jim Davis said the administration is in talks with an international company that is considering Austintown — as well as locations in three other states — as the new home for its company headquarters.
Davis said the trustees have been asked by the company to keep details under wraps, but he said a decision could be made as early as May.
For Austintown to secure the business, which would be a $20 million project creating about 100 jobs, the trustees must find money to contribute to a road-improvement project where the company would be located.
Davis said this road project could potentially make or break the deal.
“There’s a $1 million road project that we’d need to do,” he said. “The road needs to be passable for business traffic coming in and out.”
Davis said the problem lies in Austintown’s inability to share in the funding of the roadwork.
The Mahoning County Engineer’s Office is able to fund a large chunk of the project — about $250,000, he said. Minimal state funding also is available, and the company was willing to contribute to the cost as well, Davis said.
But Austintown officials said they have no funds to put toward the project.
“[The company] honestly said, ‘Whatever the township can do,’ even 10 percent, which would be $25,000,” Davis said. “But our hands are tied — we can’t do anything.”
“We had to decline participation, which will jeopardize the project. ... All because of state funding cuts that were, in Gov. [John] Kasich’s words, aimed at making Ohio a more advantageous option for new businesses to locate,” Austintown Trustee David Ditzler wrote in a letter to The Vindicator.
Mike Dockry, township administrator, said the majority of Austintown’s $16.5 million budget — about 70 percent — is spent on employees’ wages and benefits.
Proposed cuts in state funding to local governments, as well as the phasing out of inheritance tax and businesses’ tangible personal-property tax over the next four years, are impacting communities across the state.
Rob Nichols, spokesman for Kasich’s office, said Austintown should look into applying for funding through the Department of Development.
“Quite honestly, through the Department of Development, I think it’s fairly routine to get money for road improvements,” he said. “I do think there are monies out there to that end.”
Nichols said the department provides funds specifically for road improvements to lure new businesses but said he was surprised the township hadn’t reached out to the department sooner.
“The governor’s budget would not even go into effect until July 1,” Nichols said. “Therefore any suggestions that a county is unable to afford anything because of our budget would be inaccurate.”
The township stands to lose about $2 million over the next few years, money that Davis said would have been in the general fund and available for the road project.
“Everything that was cut, that was money that went right into our general fund,” he said.
Davis said losing out on a company that not only would bring new jobs and revenue but would boost current businesses as well would be a shame.
“It’s a reputable company, and making Austintown its national headquarters would bring travelers who would stay in our hotels and use our businesses,” he said.
“Ultimately it’s good business. ... Hopefully this lack of funding doesn’t prevent us from getting it.”