CARMAKER KEEPING CORPORATE HOME IN NEW JERSEY
|| By FITSNEWS || Chinese-owned automotive manufacturer Volvo will not move its North American headquarters to South Carolina, The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper is reporting. Nor will it incorporate a metal-stamping component at its soon-to-be-built Berkeley County facility – which would have driven up the corporation’s capital investment dramatically.
The news comes days after the Palmetto State “won” a multi-state bidding war to land the plant… guaranteeing a massive crony capitalist handout to the company owned by wealthy Chinese billionaire Li Shufu.
How massive? State lawmakers could borrow up to $120 million for Volvo – with another $45 million available to S.C. governor Nikki Haley as part of a “deal-closing” fund. Santee Cooper – a state-run utility – is in the process of negotiating handouts in the form of free or reduced energy prices, and Volvo is likely to receive job development tax credits, infrastructure enhancements, so-called “site improvements” and income tax rebates for its employees. And of course liberal environmentalists are going to take their cut.
What will the final price tag be? We may never know … because South Carolina is one of the least transparent states in America when it comes to disclosing the terms of deals like this. Still.
Volvo never considered moving its corporate headquarters to the Palmetto State, apparently … and while we’d ordinarily place the blame for that on South Carolina’s high, regressive income tax, New Jersey is actually one of the few states which imposes an even greater levy.
Of course if income tax credits are part of these deals, does it matter what a state’s top marginal rate is?
As we’ve said repeatedly, we welcome companies like BMW, Boeing, Continental Tires and Volvo to South Carolina. All we ask is they not pick our pockets to subsidize their expansions.
Such deals are not only patently unfair … they simply haven’t worked, as South Carolina workers remain dirt poor. And part of a labor force that’s much smaller than the national average.
But we say that all the time …
Meanwhile the mainstream media is busy making rock stars out of the politicians giving away your money to billionaires.
37 comments
Where does amfy live?
If thought those honchos would move to SC, you must be high.
No kidding. I can’t wait to retire and get the hell out of this shitty state.
Some retiring Yankee is waiting for you to leave so they can buy your house.
They better replace the HVAC before they stroke out.
So his house is in Columbia?
This is true. Also, people from Ohio are spreading like an epidemic.
I keep hearing this. Where are these Ohioans moving to…Charleston?
We’re filled up with Ohio-ans. I don;t know how there is anyone left in Cleveland.
It’s the Upstate. I see the OH license plates and Buckeye stickers all over the place.
So damn, they’re not bringing the whole vagina to South Carolina?
You’re missing the point: they come here because SC workers are willing to REMAIN dirt poor. And our politicians are pimping them out.
I love how Haley keeps calling them a Swedish car maker. Volvo hasn’t been a “Swedish” company since 2000 (when it was sold to Ford) and they’ve been owned by a Chinese company (when Ford sold it) since 2007. Also, if anyone thinks that any company is going to move their headquarters to SC (much less Columbia), they’re out of their minds. They don’t want the address on their letterhead to be a joke.
Michelin North America says Hi!
Shut up, Meg.
You forgot to fart in his/her face.
Volvo is in business to make a profit by whatever legal means necessary. The majorty of SC public servants who run for office, and who made it are in office to use their positions for their own veiled motives.
“the company owned by wealthy Chinese billionaire Li Shufu.”
I thought Volvo was owned by a company. Or is it your position that corporate entities are mere shams?
Also, too, “wealthy billionaire” is redundant.
Volvo never said they planned to move their HQ to SC. They just wanted a site for a factory. BS article like this is why Will is no longer relevant. Well… that and beating his wife.
Except that every media outlet in the state is reporting the Volvo story.
Dumb face, when will you understand that FITS isentertainment not media?
Uncle Billy just called. Said to tell the CNSYD fellow to pipe down.
You’re just an angry drug head and/or alcoholic.
That last link is hilarious.
It almost looked like Haley was looking for approval from Bobby during the interview….lol
I also laughed when she said SC is becoming known for making a pitch “for our company”. Let’s just make sure she’s not doing the bookkeeping, eh?
Ahhhh….the possibilities are endless with taxpayer money…so much easier to manage without the pesky need for accountability or profit.
I especially liked the end where Bobby Hitt extolled on the risk being taken by Volvo…in his words they are “rebuilding and rebranding”….and of course…no word on the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars put at risk from him.
Shut up ungwateful woundeyes!
S.C. lured Volvo with $204M incentives package
The sad part is that they are actually choosing NJ over SC. Maybe Nikki and Christie worked out some deal, ie free food for Nikki at Jets/Giants games if HQ stayed there.
BMW (US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group’s sales headquarters for North America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.
Volvo is struggling mightily in the U.S. market. Many analysts thought they would withdraw from the U.S. completely. The S.C. factory seems like a last-ditch effort to compete here, so I’m not surprised they are not going all in with a huge investment. If their sales pick up, they will expand here. If they continue sinking, Volvo might pull an American LaFrance on us. Last I heard, Berkeley County was still trying to claw back a puny fraction of the incentives it gave to that company to move here. At least we got to keep their cool old firetrucks for the Fire Museum.
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Great bagels and pizza in NJ. Maybe that’s why.
Barbecue, shrimp and grits, fried chicken, and sweet tea here… so seriously, what’s your point?… that YOU like Yankee food more than Southern food.
Not that I do, that THEY do.
… who is THEY?… the Chinese?.. the Swedes? Didn’t know that Volvo was a Jewish-Italian-American company.
We all know that YOU don’t have a sense of humor.
South Carolina is good enough for the workers, but Volvo executives will continue to live and work in the upper-class enclave of Rockleigh, NJ in Bergen County — an affluent suburb of NYC. The Volvo “big shots” will take our tax money, but (Heaven forbid!) they’re not going to move to Berkeley County.