by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
A Tampa steel company’s request for $3 million in incentives never made it to the JEDC Thursday, but its absence spoke loudly to future firms that want to hold off layoffs with City money.
Although Gerdau Ameristeel US Inc. withdrew its request before it reached a vote from the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, several commissioners said its approval would have sent the City down a dangerous path.
Ameristeel wanted the grant to renovate its Baldwin mill. Without the grant, the firm said it might have to shut down the mill, erasing 281 jobs, according to the commissioners.
Commissioner Brad Glass said it was a good company but a bad deal. Approving incentives to hold off layoffs would set a dangerous precedent he said.
“We don’t want to set a precedent where companies come to us whenever they’re facing layoffs,” said Glass, also Auchter Company president. “It’s a situation I could face in my own company. All of a sudden we’re facing tough times, should I come here looking for help?”
The project drew different opinions from the commission. Commissioner Charles Appleby said the City should have the option to use incentives to preserve jobs.
“Keeping jobs from being lost is just as important as bringing jobs in,” he said. “It’s easy to Monday-morning quarterback after you lose 100 jobs and then realize we could have done something about it.”
The tricky part, Appleby acknowledged, is deciphering when a company is really in trouble and when it just claims to be. “I don’t know how you verify that,” he said.
Cornerstone vice president Jerry Mallot said the commission was looking at the project the wrong way. The Ameristeel deal was an expansion opportunity, not an attempt to hold off layoffs, he said. The project would have brought in a large amount of capital investment and expanded the region’s tax base, he said. Ameristeel hasn’t decided whether it will return to the JEDC.