By Dick Miller
WE.CONNECT.DOTS: Gov. Tom Corbett recently announced Pennsylvania will award United States Steel Corp. a grant of nearly $31 million to help rehabilitate the company’s Mon Valley Works. He appears to have taken a page out of former Senator Rick Santorum’s playbook in 2006.
Did not work then, either.
Santorum campaigned throughout the state for re-election with a thick pile of checks signed by President Bush. Regardless, Sen. Bob Casey swept Santorum out of office in a landslide.
Can’t blame Corbett for trying to get re-elected in the same manner. Consider the political aspects of the largest economic development grant from Harrisburg in years.
U.S. Steel is run by scads of executives who write big campaign checks to Corbett’s fundraisers. U.S. Steel was born in Pittsburgh and its management culture has been hand-in-hand with the Republican Party always. Corbett has already delivered in the form of various tax cuts. He never met a tax on business that he liked.
Corbett’s campaign slogan is “less taxes and more jobs.” Not even original, but catchy and sell-able to his gullible audience of Keystone voters.
When Corbett said the record setting grant was “offered based on fears (and no hard evidence) that U.S. Steel was exiting Pennsylvania,” the Pittsburgh Tribune Review went about as ballistic as it gets against a Republican officeholder.
The Trib accused Corbett of handing out taxpayer money like so many “election-year Chiclets . . .And it’s rationale is beyond the pale.”
True, U.S. Steel did say it was exploring all options “once its headquarters lease expires at the U.S. Steel Tower in 2017.” The Tower no longer carries the USS logo. UPMC’s sign adorns the 60-story downtown structure since U.S. Steel relinquished ownership.
U.S. Steel “now says it is committed to the Keystone State.”
U.S. Steel, the nation’s second largest steelmaker, is the same company “that decries foreign governments subsidizing their steel industries. So what’s this?” asks the Trib in an editorial this past Monday.
There are more reasons the grant is a good political stunt, despite the steelmaker’s relentless campaign to cut costs through layoffs.
Don’t expect Democrats obligated to organize labor to criticize the grant, however.
U.S. Steel’s workforce is represented by United Steelworkers of America. USWA leaders apparently are satisfied with the company sparing what jobs are saved. To date, the company has idled tube operations at McKeesport, indefinitely, and operations and business support staff downtown. Corbett, of course, did not require the company to provide specific job losses.
Senate minority leader Dom Costa even attended the presentation.
Manipulated numbers will weigh heavily in Corbett’s political favor.
He can claim the grant stabilizes the 4,000 remaining U.S. Steel jobs in the region or even take credit for saving an estimated 40,000 jobs worldwide, whatever sounds better.
Finally, the case for gullible political audiences. The focus here is small business owners who believe for thirty years that the “trickle down” economic effects will improve their wretched existence.
Do the math. The $31 million commitment to U.S. Steel should be redirected to 50 small businesses that already employ 10 to 25 people to have true economic value to the communities. Applications for the funds should come from companies where additional equipment, working capital or even help with an expansion would create new Pennsylvania jobs.
Bottom Line: The above alternative is not going to happen. Democrats cannot embrace small businesses because they are non-union. Republicans don’t need to expend political capital on small businesses. These business owners are happy if their party leaders help reduce business and environmental regulations.
