Gun Lake Tribe a better corporate citizen than Switch

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.

While many Americans rail against welfare queens and lazy poor people who game the system to collect money without working, too many overlook or ignore what may be a more costly process — corporate welfare.

Corporate welfare doesn’t seem to absorb as much public criticism and scrutiny, yet it costs taxpayers a boatload of money to benefit the rich at the expense of the middle class.

One of the best examples recently is the Switch data center in Gaines Township, which accumulated plenty of benefits in tax breaks, just to get them to locate here and now the company is asking for more. It is demanding common everyday taxpayers to help subsidize the business, state officials are all too willing to comply.

This, despite the abatements granted in 2016, when then-State Rep. Ken Yonker defended the State Legislature’s Santa Claus act by saying the company will bring jobs to the community. Where have we heard that song and dance before? Yonker told the Leighton Township Board that Leighton will continue to grow if the state can work out an agreement to bring the Switch data company into the former Steelcase pyramid.

The company, which had been doing business in Nevada, promised to bring at least 1,000 good-paying tech jobs. That’s fewer jobs than the Gun Lake Tribe has created with the Gun Lake Casino. At less cost.

Switch promised to turn the pyramid into a cloud data storage facility and invest $5 billion into the project. However, it insists on a waiver of sales, use and property taxes and has indicated that it has other offers, like in the State of New York.

This reminds me of a sports franchise owner threatening to leave to greener pastures unless the host city builds a new stadium. Don’t forget it wasn’t that long ago that Red Wings’ owner Mike Illitch insisted the cash-strapped City of Detroit chip in more than $200 million for Little Casesar’s Arena.

Yonker’s successor, State Rep. Steve Johnson, recently rose in righteous indignation in the State House to tell his colleagues about the evils of corporate welfare. This time. Mr. Johnson was spot on.

I know there are many local officials who have opposed the Gun Lake Tribe for having its land taken into federal trust and off the tax rolls. But the Tribe earlier this month announced a road improvement project at the Exit 61 overpass on 129^th Avenue leading to Bradley. The key here is that the Tribe, which stands to benefit economically, has pledged to pay for 95 percent of the cost of the project.

The Tribe is promising to do what other big businesses do not do when they set down a brick and mortar business outside the city limits to avoid higher taxes. Then they require public tax dollars to widen the road and install a traffic light that were necessitated by the presence of the retail giant.

So as much as the Tribe and the Gun Lake Casino are criticized for taking property off the local tax rolls, they pay some of it back in the form of revenue sharing agreements. And when infrastructure improvements are made, they’re willing to pay for them.

The Tribe seems to be a much better corporate citizen than Switch.