N.Y. Chip-Fab Deal Emits New Stench

September 23, 2011

Kudos to Glen Falls

Post Star

columnist Will Doolittle for his tart

September 22 column

exposing that “Water stinks… as expected” coming from a pipeline built for a microchip fabrication plant in Saratoga County, upstate New York.

This is the notorious GlobalFoundries plant that received $1.2 billion in subsidies for about 1,200 jobs – a cool $1 million per job, with no Job Quality Standards attached! (See our 2010

study

on high-tech deals that includes a case study on it.)

The costly water line was built for the factory but three cities tapped into it, as “a token public face on the line's real corporate purpose,” writes Doolittle. But they need so little that “the chlorine in the water breaks down in the pipe, making it smell like a swamp,” he explains.

Meanwhile: “The establishment of a huge plant and influx of more than 1,000 workers to staff it carries costs as well as benefits, which is why businesses and individuals pay taxes – to cover the public services they receive. But by granting GlobalFoundries enormous tax breaks, we've tilted the balance. Everyone else must pay more so the company can benefit,” concludes Doolittle. “Since the GlobalFoundries deal reeks it makes sense the water in the line built to supply it stinks.”