Norfolk [Nebraska] senator asks Tyson for $2 million

[Tommy]

Subject: Norfolk [Nebraska] senator asks Tyson for $2 million for plant closing



Norfolk senator asks Tyson for $2 million for plant closing

By NATE JENKINS/Lincoln Journal Star

Wednesday, March, 1, 2006



A state senator has fired off a letter to the CEO of Tyson Foods asking

the company to give a little something back after its decision to leave

Norfolk on a moment's notice: $2 million.



"We've made a lot of changes to try and accommodate our new citizens,"

said Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, who sent the letter directly to John

Tyson, CEO of Tyson Foods.



The company cut 1,300 jobs when it closed the Norfolk meat-processing

plant last month. Another 365 jobs were lost in West Point, outside

Flood's legislative district, when Tyson closed a slaughterhouse.



"Tyson asked for a lot of incentives to come to town, and I'm just

asking them to continue providing services now that they've left,"

Flood said.



Like others in the city of about 24,000, Flood's anger over Tyson's

decision is exacerbated by how the company handled it. Flood said he

got a phone call at 7:58 a.m. the day Tyson announced its decision.



Two minutes later, the company made it public. And two days later, it

was stripping the Norfolk plant.



Flood believes Tyson should pay to ease the expected budget crunch on

groups that created new services to meet the needs of Tyson employees,

many of which are new immigrants. The groups must continue providing

the services even after the company has left, Flood says.



"The City of Norfolk and Madison County have made significant changes

in the way they do business following your company's decision to locate

in Norfolk," Flood says in the letter.



"Our schools have developed programs for English language learners, our

health care system has implemented programming to serve Latino, Somali

and Sudanese communities and our law enforcement has implemented

changes to provide high quality public safety services."



About $900,000 of Flood's $2 million request is tied specifically to a

health care clinic created in large part to cater to Tyson employees.

Another $450,000 is for a new center that helps immigrants obtain basic

services, and $210,000 is for the United Way.



The figures represent estimated budget losses for the groups over the

next three years. Flood is also asking for $500,000 to help the area

with economic development and marketing.



Flood's letter may be a first for the company.



"I've worked here about 15 years," Tyson spokesman Archie Schaffer III

said. "During that time period, I'm just guessing, we've closed less

than 10 plants. As far as I know this is the first request like this

I've received."



"I am not prepared to respond substantively to Senator Flood. We

received the letter this morning. It is something I'll discuss with

senior management."



Schaffer said Tyson is "very mindful" of the impact its decision had on

Norfolk and West Point.



The company's departure thus far hasn't caused a mass exodus of former

Tyson employees out of Norfolk, Flood said.



The company's intentions for the building remain unclear. The Norfolk

plant isn't up for sale, Flood said, and Tyson officials have refused

to discuss their plans for it.



"Nobody knows what they're doing," Flood said.



Schaffer said the company has not decided what to do with that plant or

the West Point facility.

 

[Econ101]

If companies are going to bargain with govts. to get tax breaks in return for locating the business there, why shouldn't govts. expect a little more out of the companies? Why is Schaffer or John Tyson taken by surprise?

Here is the scoop on Shaffer, Tyson and the Clintons:


CONVICTED TYSON FOOD EXECUTIVE
PARDONED BY DEPARTING BILL CLINTON

Archie Schaffer III, the chief spokesman for Tyson Foods, the nation's largest poultry producer, was convicted by a jury under a 1907 law of trying to influence agricultural policy by arranging for former USDA Secretary Mike Espy to attend a Tyson birthday party in Arkansas in 1993. The sentencing of Schaffer was one of the final items in Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz's six-year, $23 million investigation of Espy. Another jury acquitted Espy in December 1998.

Last week Bill Clinton in the waning days of his presidency and who throughout his personal and political life has numbered Don Tyson and his Arkansas company as a key supporter and contributor, granted a pardon to Schaffer.

Arkansas Republicans and Democrats had urged Clinton to pardon Schaffer, arguing the spokesman was convicted under an obscure law by an independent counsel seeking to build a case against Espy. While the federal judge who oversaw the case said he believed Schaffer was innocent and twice tried to acquit him, he was reversed by an appeals court.

Thus, U.S. District Judge James Robertson reluctantly sentenced Schaffer to a year and one day in prison and a $5,000 fine, the minimum that he said was allowed under the Meat Inspection Act. The extra prison day would have made Schaffer eligible for good-behavior credits that could free him nearly two months early, the judge said.

Besides the pardon pleas, Schaffer supporters wrote nearly 100 letters to
Robertson asking that he show leniency. Schaffer, the nephew of the former
Arkansas governor and U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers, Dem.-Arkansas, served in Bumpers' administrations and led a business group studying educational reforms during Clinton's tenure as governor.

Pleading guilty to giving Espy $12,000 in illegal gratuities, Tyson Foods, consented to pay the federal government $4 million in fines and $2 million in costs. Tyson chairman Don Tyson and his son John Tyson were also granted immunity from further prosecution.

While the media was reporting simply that independent counsel Donald Smaltz's investigation centered on "favors from large companies with important interests before the government," court papers stated that at the time it was bestowing gifts on Espy, Tyson Foods was urging USDA to go slow on imposing new meat and poultry handling instructions.

Smaltz's office said prompt imposition of the new rule would have cost Tyson Foods $30 million, although ultimately a court order blocked enforcement of the rule. It was also believed that Espy's coziness with Tyson was the reason he hesitated to remove holdover appointees who were helping to block stricter regulation of meat and poultry.