Life imitates The Onion: MDC deal with Apache keeps them from going to....wait for it.....Andrews.
You think I am kidding? Read it and weep, baby. Read it and weep.
Still, the economic development news of this day was the Apache deal. According to the economic development agreement, Apache has leased 48,000 square feet of office space [Has leased? I guess they were pretty confident that the MDC was going to come through with that critical set of incentives, huh? -- Ed.] and anticipates creating a minimum of 51 jobs with "annual salaries and wages" totaling $5 million.The MDC will provide Apache a pair of interest-free forgivable loans of $125,000 in both May 2011 and 2012.
Perry cited regional competition inside the economic development arena as a reason for the deal with a corporation the size of Apache. Perry said the city of Andrews was putting together its own package to offer Apache to house its regional headquarters. The Andrews offer, he said, included a building and tax incentives.
"What would have been worse is Andrews wins the deal and Apache moves to Andrews," Perry said. "How would that make us look?"
[Snip]
"Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars seemed to be reasonable help," Perry said. "It would have been a bad deal if they went to Andrews because Andrews gave them the better incentive."
Andrews. Let that sink in for a little bit. Andrews.
The official line is that two cash prizes forgivable loans given to Apache by the Midland Development Corporation in the amount of $125,000 each, the first to be given in May of next year and the second to be given in May of 2012 saved the day for Midland by keeping Apache from going to......Andrews. Andrews, which doesn't have the office space nor the housing inventory.
Andrews, which also doesn't happen to be the town in which several Apache transferees have *cough* already purchased homes.
How do you even say this with a straight face? Had they come out and said something like, "You know what? We know Apache is coming here anyway but this money is just sitting in the bank doing nothing and Apache will at least spend it on something so, what the Hell,....why not give it to them?", it would have been more acceptable.
At the very least it would not have been insulting.
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8 Comments
I guess the City Council believes if Andrews passes their liquor ordinance they will be on an equal footing with Midland .?. *scratches head*
A lot of the folks coming in from Tulsa really like Tulsa. They may grow to love Midland. But the point is that Apache would have lost of lot of these folks altogether trying to move them from Tulsa to Andrews.
Hmmm.... The can afford to purchase Mariner Energy for 2.7 Billion, but need to be given $250,000 for rent. Sounds like corporate welfare abuse to me.
Like I said when the deal was announced, Apache has spent Billions to acquire fields in the Permian Basin (I didn't count offshore and foreign acquisitions) and when they call the area "A CASH MACHINE" in one of their press releases, why wouldn't you put in an office out here to manage such a valuable asset, $250K from the MDC or not?
I wish to welcome Apache and their new people to the Permian Basin.
That said , did anyone in our city council REALLY believe it was us or Andrews ? Come on ..come on,, Say George Washington five times and don't smile..come on..
They said they had to put this package together before Andrews did ! What does Andrews have that Midland/Odessa doesn't...besides atomic waste?
(Andrews is a fine community and maybe that last was a bit strong but the fact remains that Andrews simply does not have the resources to compete with Midland!)
I resent the council trying to tell me they had to act lest Andrews pulls the rug from under our feet. THIS MONEY TO APACHE WAS "BUSYWORK"! Nothing more than that . Sit at your desk with nothing really to do , the boss comes in..and then you look busy.. BUSYWORK !
What's our next economic threat...Notrees?
Sheeesh !
I think I might be setting myself up for a beating here, but since his Andrews comment was a response to my question -- "Tell us why a company involved with billion dollar deals needs an incentive (and such a small one at that)" -- I thought I would pitch in.
I agree with his sentiment that MDC would have been killed if an Andrews deal would have lured the company away.
Good points are being made about the timing and such, but still if Midland loses Apache, would there not have been complaints about all the MDC has all this money in the bank and it just let a company slip away?
Well, United Fuel and Energy Slipped Away. As for upset over losing them or letting them go, well these deals are not subject to open meetings, so how would we know?
They've got over $20 mil in the bank. Why parcel it out over two years? Starting next year, even.