CITY OFFICIALS ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT VALMONT
The tax abatements for Valmont Industries recently approved by the City of Brenham and by Washington County have brought up many questions, considering last year's layoffs by the company. Brenham City Manager Terry Roberts and Paige Michel, President and CEO of the Brenham Economic Development Foundation, answered some of those questions for KWHI.
Roberts and Michel explained that there are three separate divisions of Valmont. The original division that located in Brenham is the Valmont Structures division, which manufactures large utility poles. The division that opened here in 2011, and mostly employed welders, was Valmont Utilities. That division closed last year, laying off 160 workers. The third division is Valmont Coatings, which recently received the tax abatements for their plans to locate in Brenham. Michel says that division will start up with 40 employees in year one making an average salary between about $29,000 and $35,000. They plan to grow to over 100 employees over the next few years. Valmont Coatings is the division that was granted a tax abatement last year, but then changed their plans due to the downturn in the economy.
The original Brenham division, Valmont Structures, currently employs about 223 people.
Roberts says the City views each of the Valmont divisions as separate companies when they apply for tax abatements. He says last year's closure of the Utilities division had no effect on the granting of abatements for the Coatings division this year. However, Roberts did say that the City is looking back to see if the Utilities division met the obligations of its own tax abatement before closing last year.
I do not and have never worked for Valmont nor the City of Brenham EDF (or anyone associated with this matter), however anyone who has lived in the community long enough knows their business seems to cycle up and down and that they are known to hire large groups of people during the up cycle of their business and layoff during the down cycles. The simple fact of the matter is that they have to adjust their labor force to either up or down to meet their customer demands and maintain the health of their company. I know those who are laid off don’t like it but the reputation of hiring and laying off is nothing new, check it out before you go to work for a company. There are plenty of companies known to do that, and plenty whose business model is more consistent and they do not do that.
From the City of Brenham’s perspective, a tax abatement is a simple and smart decision. Anything that brings new jobs, or old jobs back is good. This increases the overall tax base, increases utility demand (what they miss in taxes, they make up for in utilities), and is better for the city and it’s citizens. Tax abatements that actually grow businesses and provide jobs are a “no brainer”, they should do it every single time if it results in a growth of our local economy. This is a simple business decision and the City of Brenham is smart to do this.
Why would you even consider giving them a tax break for 40 employees, considering they laid off so many last year. If they are a sound company, they can pay taxes just like every other business in the community.
So any company in the county should break up into separate divisions and get tax breaks for any expansion that make! You are right Valmont is Valmont.
Sugar coat the story or galvanize it; it doesn’t matter. I was employed prior to 2011 and then got laid off after 30 years of service. As you make these comments and hide in your government offices and absorb your excessive salaries you make no sense whatsoever. This article is a disgrace to the laid off employees and to every taxpayer. If I was anyone associated with making statements for this article; I would be ashamed to show my face in public.