Apple using Texas cash to boost US hiring With the help of a $21m investment from a Texas job-creation fund, Apple will construct a $304m campus in Austin that will add over new 3,600 jobs to its current 47,000 US employees. "Investments like this further Texas' potential to become the nation's next high-tech hub," said Texas governor Rick Perry in a statement. The …
Part of money that Apple will inject into the local economy will go back into the fund, and the net result will still be positive to the local economy.
Not so if Apple went elsewhere - and before someone says that others would come in Apple's place, would others be as successful as Apple?
In many cases companies just take the money, never really get off the ground and open bankruptcy.
Put it into perspective though, that $21,000,000 will only cover around a third of the wages bill for the first year. Take into account the taxes from those wages along with whatever other taxes are generated from the campus. Yes it might cost them a chunk of change but the benefits will far outweigh the costs very quickly.
I'm not an Apple man myself, but business is business and if they are going to invest somewhere, it only stands to reason that they should expect the beneficiaries of that investment to put up a bit as well. Do you think Apple are the only business to expect this, which is why practically every government has investment grants and funding for not only big companies, but small businesses as well. The expectation is that the investment will pay for itself through reclaimed taxes and people having jobs who might otherwise be claiming welfare benefits.
Hopefully the 'investment' is graduated, based on progress made and goals achieved. Too many of these "marvelous" political news items fall down later.
There was a skeletal steel-frame building in downtown Austin for a couple years after some Intel enthusiasm got 'redirected'. A 'deal' from the state, so nothing negative happened in reply. Skeletal buildings are a wonderful comment on political 'backbone'.
One business that I know about had to refund some of their tax breaks from a local government, when they didn't hire but half the people they said they would. That was a local gov, that could afford money losses less than they could losses of face. So they forced the right result.
Didn't the city have to foot the bill for security on Intel's abandoned building during that period?
I thought I also heard, more recently, of them forcing downtown businesses (a local Mexican diner called Las Manitas was one of them) closed for a deal that wound up going bust later.
I hope they learned their lesson... but wouldn't hold my breath on it. That said, I don't really see Apple as a risky partner for holding their end of the bargain.
Interesting the Governor Goodhair sees the Texas fund as the 'last resort'. I would put it more like a 'last bribe'.
Apple is a very cash-rich company, already has a significant customer support and marketing presence in Austin as well as a growing business marketing arm. What on earth, apart from a bribe, would it need the state's money for?
They have a legal obligation to their shareholders and can't turn down state inducements on principle. Besides, this will be good for the local economy in a part of Texas that is rapidly becoming a hub for high tech business. The US is perhaps the worst place in the developed world to not be in employment (they don't have "socialised healthcare" so are in the habit of dying if they can't afford private healthcare) so I doubt you'll find many people in Austin who are unhappy with this.
This post has been deleted by its author
As a Texan that money has already been taken from you.
If you're an Austin resident, you'll see it back in a local economy that's thriving. If you're not an Austin resident, then the State will benefit from increased tax revenue on the wages.
I'm in the UK so I don't know if TX has sales tax, but if it does, then TX wil get the money back that way.
Disclaimer - my fiancee lives in Oregon and i have no idea if they have sales tax - simply can't remember! I do have some very good friends in Houston.
Previous comment withdrawn to fix a typo.
This post has been deleted by its author
Yes it has already been taken from me. Texas is also laying off teachers because the state is short of money. Compared to Samsung, Apple is a drop in the bucket compared to Samsung and Freescale.
You say the money will come back to the State in Taxes. I have never seen anything to back that up.
Hardly a first. Sadly this seems to be the cost of attracting large corporations to your locality. Not sure it's a good way to guarantee a long term commitment though.
ISTR Ireland gave generous tax breaks to companies which set up, operated for a decade or so and then buggered off elsewhere when the tax breaks expired and someone else offered a sweeter deal.
Then again, those are 3,600+ jobs which aren't being outsourced to East Buttfuckistan for the time being. Should put a lot more than $21m back into the local economy.
Apple will be right at home. The State money is not an issue, really, Municipalities gotta do what they gotta do. The important part from the long view is the long history of transparent Peonage. You just can't fake that or change the subject - either you have it or you don't.
I guess this is our idea of capitalism. Apple makes cash hand over foot by mass-producing it's crap using slave labor in the third world and takes welfare over here to create jobs.
I don't own an apple product; I have no reason to own an apple product; i'll never own an apple product.
Take your apples and stick them up your bums.
James Woods: the genius of Steve Jobs was in making upwardly mobile middle class people in developed capitalist countries feel good about buying electronics produced under slave labor conditions in factories run by the most corrupt communist regime on Earth, employing primarily women of childbearing age, as they have the nimblest fingers and most patience. However, don't bring that up to your iPhone-toting friends or indeed on this forum, unless you wish to suffer the wrath and fury of the "it just works" crowd.
....have you actually been to fucking China? Or are you merely regurgitating the already over diluted bile, that emanates from the so called "Journalists" who perpetuate this bullshit?
I think you'll find that Foxconn has better working conditions and pay than most other technology companies in China. Foxconn is not only used by Apple. These two FACTS are frequently overlooked by rabid haters because to admit it would reduce the effectiveness of the argument presented.
In conclusion crawl back under your nasty little rock you filthy little troll and take your hideously misinformed opinions with you.
Extorting $21 Million from the people to build publicly owned infrastructure for one of the most profitable and wealthiest company to control so Rick The Dick Perry (Gov.) can redraw his Power Point slides to imply 'he' is creating jobs. And this will be just the start of the racketeering with Apple in Austin. Stay tuned to next week's Sopranos.
Each employee needs to pay ~$5800 in taxes to recoup that kind of money. As Texas has NO income tax, not on interest or dividends either...that is a lot of spending to recoup that kind of money. You are talking ~$116,000 spending at 5% of any other tax rate.
I guarantee they are not paying any type of corporate tax, and probably no real estate tax either for at least 10 years. Walmart/Target/Kohls don't when they move in, Pfizer didn't when they screwed over Connecticut a few years ago. Though Pfizer's level of screwing over taxes was a masterpiece....
I know nothing about UK tax laws, but US laws are more guidelines for those with the money to get special exemptions.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2023
