SWOPblogger

In a rare change of heart for a multinational, Intel has decided today to give back to the taxpayers of New Mexico.

"As a show of our appreciation to taxpayers for their generosity for taking on our tax burden, not only are we going to pay back each and every dollar we took from the state's coffers through tax breaks, we're going to give each and every child in the state a free top-of-the-line computer with Intel's latest super chips inside," said Liz Malloy, a spokesperson for the company. "And further, we will reduce our toxic emissions to virtually zero within the next year."

"It's the least we can do," added Liz Malloy. "NM taxpayers have helped to make us one of the richest corporations in the world."

Labels: April Fools 08, Intel, IRB's

The bad grades just never seem to stop coming.

According to a new study, the state received an F for online disclosure of corporate tax breaks and other kinds of economic development subsidies with a score of 0 of 33 (0%).

The state got a better grade on contract disclosure, but lobbying activities in the state remain a relative secret on the internet.

In the press release for the Good Jobs First study:

"The Internet makes possible an unprecedented level of government transparency and public participation." said Good Jobs First Executive Director Greg LeRoy, "But many states have been slow to adopt vigorous online disclosure, especially with respect to economic development subsidies. Twenty-seven states [including New Mexico] and the District of Columbia still provide no systematic online subsidy disclosure."

Full text of the report as well as an appendix on each state (plus the District of Columbia) can be found on the Good Jobs First Web site at http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/news/article.cfm?id=375

Some policy options for Fred Mondragon, state officials and legislators from the study's press release:

• Make it possible to browse through complete databases on subsidies, contracts, etc. as well as to search for data on a specific party.

• Provide a variety of data formats, so that users can either download full databases and analyze the information offline or import the data to other Web sites (through Application Programming Interfaces).

• Enhance subsidy and contract disclosure to include data on outcomes. For example, subsidy disclosure should reveal how many jobs (with what wage rates, benefits, etc.) were created by subsidized companies, and contract disclosure show indicate how well the vendor company carried out its responsibilities.

• Also enhance subsidy and contract disclosure to include data on the past performance of companies. This could include their track record on environmental, workplace, and consumer-protection compliance as well as the existence of any tax liens.

• Combine disclosure about subsidies, contract awards and lobbying with data on state campaign contributions by the companies involved or their top executives.

You can contact your legislator here about vigorous online disclosure of corporate tax breaks (and other economic development deals between governments and corporations), procurement contracts and lobbying activities in the state.

Labels: Clean Elections, corporate welfare, IRB's, Subsidy Disclosure, taxes, Transparency

- New state of the art equipment
- 16 billion dollars in Industrial Revenue Bonds
- 1000 jobs lost

What’s the connection?

Communities subsidizing the business and profit of Intel

We hate to say we told you so Sandoval County but...

WE TOLD YOU SO!

This is the result of the lack of accountability in the back room IRB deals.
What more can we expect?

Workers, community members and voters are being provided with a false sense
of security, when the government is telling them that making an investment
in Intel is in the best interest of Rio Rancho.

By not putting clawbacks in these multi-billion dollar deals the community suffers from the economic impact, not Intel.

We have a few questions to ask?

To Intel Corp.:
1. Don’t you feel guilty?


To the media:
1. Why wasn’t Sandoval County Commission asked for a comment for this
article? They signed off on the bonds, we need to hear from them.

2. Why wasn’t a resident from the Village of Corrales asked about the
economic & environmental impact Intel has had on their community?

3. Why wasn’t SWOP, which has worked over 15 years to institute clawbacks in
IRB’s to hold corporations accountable not to mention years spent holding Intel
accountable for environmental pollution, asked for it’s perspective?

4. Why aren’t you informing voters that their government is partly
responsible for the job cuts? The government has historically neglected holding Intel accountable to the community that has given it so much.


To Sandoval County:
1. Why is Intel being let off the hook?

2. What can we expect in the future regarding economic development policies that
directly affect your constituents?

3. 16 billion in IRB’s and no questions asked? Nobody goes “Past Go” unless
they pay. Now that’s fishy.

Read the Journal Article here

Read the Tribune Article here.

Labels: corporate welfare, Intel, IRB's, Job Cuts, Rio Rancho

Rio Rancho Layoffs Come as Company Begins Phasing Out Older Chip

BY ANDREW WEBB
Journal Staff Writer

Intel Corp. officials on Tuesday confirmed the company will shrink its Rio Rancho work force by at least 1,000 between August and early next year.

Jami Grindatto, public affairs manager for Intel’s Rio Rancho plant, told the Journal that Fab 11, which makes older, simpler computer components using 200-millimeter silicon wafers, will ramp down production beginning in August.

The final number of employees who will be affected is unknown, Grindatto said, “but we’re saying it will be north of 1,000.”

Intel currently employs 4,700 at the site.

The company said in March that increasing automation in the expanding and soon-to-be retooled Fab 11X, coupled with dwindling work for the 17-year-old Fab 11, would likely mean job cuts.

The company began informing Rio Rancho employees of the impending cuts on Monday, Grindatto said. The jobs will be all types, from engineers to technicians, associated with Fab 11, which reportedly employs 1,500 to 2,000 people.

Some of them will move over to the Fab 11X plant.

“By the end of this week, everyone will be on notice that this is going to happen,” he said. “This gives them four months to think about their options.”

Employees to be let go will be notified individually beginning in August.

Intel offers a two-month paid jobsearch period, and employees are given a severance package that varies depending on how long the employee has been with the company, Grindatto said.

“It’s unfortunate to lose those people who have called Rio Rancho home,” said Rio Rancho Mayor Kevin Jackson.

Noreen Scott, president of the Rio Rancho Economic Development Corp., said the job cuts would be the largest she had seen since she began working in Rio Rancho in 1994. However, she said, other area employers such as Eclipse could absorb some laid-off workers.

“If this had been five years ago, I’d be sitting here weeping, because I wouldn’t know where these people would get jobs,” she said.

Intel announced in February that it would upgrade Fab 11X to 45-nanometer process — the company’s most advanced computer chip manufacturing technology. The new tooling will enable Fab 11X, which was built in 2002 at a cost of $2 billion, to produce chips with circuit lines 45nm thick — nearly half the size of current chip technology.

The newer fab already has expanded its operations into a quarter of the space used by the older Fab 11.

As Fab 11 shuts down, its equipment will be shipped to other locations, sold or decommissioned, Grindatto said.

Like any of Intel’s 13 operating fabs, Fab 11 could be revamped to a new process or technology.
“We’re always pre-positioning our sites for future investments,” Grindatto said.

Grindatto said the decision to lay off employees was related to Intel’s business, and not local incentives.

The company has received $24 billion in industrial revenue bonds from Sandoval County.

“We want to make sure government folks understand that there was nothing New Mexico could have done to prevent this,” he said. “That fab just made obsolete products.”
Journal staff writer Sean Olson contributed to this report.

Labels: Intel, IRB's, Job Cuts, Rio Rancho

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