News8wtnh.com reports that — guess what? — New London, Connecticut, is at it again, though this time no eminent domain is involved. This time the city is trying to salvage something out of the Kelo disaster by enticing the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics to take over the about to become former site of the Pfizer pharmaceutical company research facility in New London. http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/business/new-london-eb-expanding-pfizer
Naturally, the State of Connecticut is financing this deal with taxpayers’ money. Is there another way of doing business in 21st century America? The state will pop for $15 million, while Electric Boat will invest $99 million in the project. This news dispatch does not tell us what that $99 million will be spent on. Acquisition? If so, is Pfizer selling its [former] reserach facility? And if so, what is the sales price?
The new Electric Boat facility is expected to create 700 new jobs. We hope so, even if experience suggests that it would be prudent on our part to wait and see if that is really what happens because such prognostications usually turn out to be exaggerated.
In the meantime, the 91-acres taken in the Kelo case is still sitting there empty and unused, generating no taxes. So far, we have not been able to find definitive, reliable figures on what this caper has cost the public. We have seen figures ranging between $80 and $150 million. But whatever it is, you can now add another $15 million to it.
Your tax money at work.