Wed
Dec 17 2008
09:35 am
Letting some sun shine in on the solar materials factory deal
By: R. Neal

The Leaf Chronicle has details on the incentive package provided to Hemlock Semiconductor for their new Clarksville silicon manufacturing facility announced earlier this week. The package includes:

• $20 million land purchase by the local IDB

• $100 million in state funding for infrastructure development

• $6.4 million in state funding to Austin Peay for a training center

• $5 million state funding in job training assistance

• 20 year, 50% PILOT reduction of local property taxes

Another attraction was cheap (mostly coal-fired) TVA power, which is sort of ironic for a company that produces materials for solar power panels.

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Anonymously Nine's picture

But they make it up in volume...

Submitted by Anonymously Nine (not verified) on Wed, 2008/12/17 - 12:41pm.

So when the perks are up they will move?

That is a heck of a lot of perks. Looks like they got the same person who negotiated the News Sentinel PILOT.

R. Neal's picture

Well, it sounds like a

Submitted by R. Neal on Wed, 2008/12/17 - 12:55pm.

Well, it sounds like a better deal than $500 million+ for about the same amount of private investment by VW.

And it's an incentive for a future technology industry.

Anonymously Nine's picture

And it's an incentive for a

Submitted by Anonymously Nine (not verified) on Wed, 2008/12/17 - 2:40pm.

And it's an incentive for a future technology industry.

There is a place for incentives. It would be nice to see a more level playing field. How about some incentives for people? Regular people?

Speaking of incentives, up in New York City they suggested these incentives...

(link...)

No Ipod for Christmas.

WhitesCreek's picture

So we're facing a Billion

Submitted by WhitesCreek on Wed, 2008/12/17 - 12:58pm.

So we're facing a Billion dollar deficit and we're cutting education to help make the difference up.

And we're spending $700 million to attract jobs, while our junior Senator is busy doing his best to bust unions...Is there something wrong with this picture?

What am I missing?

R. Neal's picture

Note the investment in

Submitted by R. Neal on Wed, 2008/12/17 - 1:13pm.

Note the investment in education and training.

Another article said Hemlock Semiconductor is active in promoting math and science education in the communities where they operate. (Especially if they can get the state to pay for it, I guess.)

Imagine if there was a state that valued education and had a ready trained workforce with highly skilled engineers and technicians. Would that be valuable to an employer, maybe more so than incentives for infrastructure and cheap electricity?

Probably not, but who knows?

KC's picture

I wish we would quit using

Submitted by KC on Wed, 2008/12/17 - 3:17pm.

I wish we would quit using the terms "incentives" or "incentive package," when everytime someone talks about providing money or credit to an organization or group of people deemed unworthy, everybody calls it a "bailout."

Let's drop the word "incentives" altogether.

These are "subsidies" plain and simple.

The same kind of subsidies that have been given to our foreign (i.e.-European) competitors for decades by all those socialist governments we abhor.

R. Neal's picture

These are "subsidies" plain

Submitted by R. Neal on Wed, 2008/12/17 - 6:39pm.

These are "subsidies" plain and simple.

True.

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