The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development will reportedly give $90,000 in corporate welfare to a pet food manufacturer.
This, according to The Nashville Post, which reported that this manufacturer, Red Collar Pet Foods, will use this money to expand its headquarters in Franklin.
“Over the next five years, Red Collar plans to invest $3.7 million and add 30 jobs. The company has seven locations across the U.S., and it currently employs 50 people at its office in Franklin,” according to The Nashville Post.
“The grant will fund employee and job development programs.”
The website also reported that the state’s ECD will give $41,000 to the renewable energy company Enexor BioEnergy to expand its Franklin facilities.
As The Tennessee Star reported in June, ECD officials bestowed a generous amount of money on a new business in Cleveland, near Chattanooga.
The recipient of this $500,000 in FastTrack grant money was Triumph Sheets LLC, an affiliate of Schwarz Partners.
Schwarz Partners are based out of Indianapolis, according to The Daily Banner. Company officials manufacture and distribute corrugated paperboard products.
The new facility will reportedly create up to 83 jobs before December 2023 and generate millions of dollars in property tax revenue.
As The Star reported in February, corporations seem to play the Tennessee and Mississippi state governments against one another to get the best corporate welfare deals possible — at the expense of taxpayers in both states.
Companies wait for Tennessee and Mississippi to pony up their incentives. Company leaders can only accept one of those two deals, of course. Then they set up shop in the state that made the better offer. And sometimes these companies move from Tennessee to Mississippi and vice versa — even if they’re only moving as little as 20 miles away.
Then there’s the story of Electrolux.
Tennessee officials announced in 2011 that Electrolux would receive about $137 million in incentives to set up shop in Memphis where it was supposed to bring up to 2,000 jobs.
Former Republican Gov. Bill Haslam pledged $97 million in taxpayer money to the company, while Memphis and Shelby County officials offered an additional $20 million.
As of 2015, Electrolux Memphis had 910 hourly and salaried employees and 483 contract employees.
As The Star reported in March, Bloomberg.com called it “the worst such deal in Tennessee history” after Electrolux officials announced they would shut down their Memphis plant.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Red Collar Pet Foods” by Red Collar Pet Foods.
