This is an expensive education

As educations go, this one was expensive.
While it’s likely a legal battle lies ahead over the city of Portland’s liability for $870,000 in federal funds handed over to Geesaman Industries, the city is on the hook at the moment for the entire amount.
There’s going to be no shortage of finger pointing over the Geesaman Industries fiasco. (And, yes, fiasco is the right word.) But one point is unarguable: The city of Portland failed to secure adequate safeguards to protect local taxpayers.
No one involved looks very good at the moment. Not the city attorney, not the Hosier administration, not Geesaman Industries, and not Jay County Development Corporation.
What’s important now is to set in place procedures and priorities to make sure nothing like this happens again. That’s especially true for the administration of Mayor Randy Geesaman, which is faced with cleaning up the mess while still getting its footing in office.
(Once more, for the record, it needs to be noted that while the new mayor and Steve Geesaman have a family link, Randy Geesaman was not in a policy-making position during the period when the city dropped the ball. He was clerk-treasurer at the time.)
Keep in mind that this isn’t the first time in recent years that local government involvement with new businesses has backfired.
A few years back, Economic Development Income Tax dollars were passed out like venture capital to companies like Omnicity and Community Home Improvement, without adequate security for the investment. XPLEX, while it didn’t cost the city EDIT dollars, left behind an expensive environmental headache the city must pay to resolve.
And while the money that went to Geesaman Industries wasn’t from EDIT funds, it may well be EDIT that has to be tapped to pay back the federal government for a grant that failed to produce the promised jobs. So the effect is largely the same.
Clearly, it’s time for a moratorium on any similar ventures until strict rules can be put into place that prevent a recurrence.
EDIT money can do great things.
It’s an important tool when it comes to developing infrastructure — roads, “spec” buildings, sewer and water lines — related to attracting new industries and businesses or helping existing companies expand.
It’s also a perfectly logical way to support workforce development and continuing education opportunities at John Jay Center for Learning.
But if it’s ever to be used again as bank of last resort or a venture capital pool, it should only be with plenty of strings and sufficient collateral.
The same rules should apply if the Office of Community and Rural Affairs ever comes knocking on the door again with buckets of federal cash to pass out.
That’s not likely to happen soon, not until the current mess is resolved.
But when it does, this community needs to have its act together. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]