From The Red Dirt Report
By Ted H. Smith
Red Dirt Report, contributing writer
Posted: October 19, 2010
NORMAN, Okla. — Anyone who read the October 7 edition of The Oklahoman business section and was not outraged by wasteful state government spending was not comprehending the duplicity of the story reported under the headline” Companies to Add 180 Jobs Using Incentive Program” .
To summarize the report by Susan Simpson, Business Writer, two companies, Biotec Fuel and Chemicals of Guymon and Mertz Manufacturing of Ponca City plan to hire a total of 180 employees under the state Quality Jobs program. This means the the two companies will receive from the tax payers of Oklahoma about $2.2 million dollars over the next ten years. The story implies that the hiring was influenced by the Quality Jobs Program. However, both companies said that the hiring was a result of increased demand for their products.
The last two paragraphs of the article put the icing on the cake. The article concludes with the information that Shawnee manufacturing company Eaton Corp, which the reporter noted is “ not a Quality Jobs enrollee has hired 100 workers and plans to hire another 50. This employer will get no state money and these employees will not cost Oklahoma tax payers millions of dollars over the next ten years.
