Thanks For The Grant Money, Virginia, But We're Laying Off 372 Anyway

Yet another tale of corporate welfare gone to shit. Here is the Pilot OnLine.com with the story:

Early last year, Gov. Bob McDonnell announced that Virginia officials had persuaded a call center to stay in Hampton and expand, enticed in part by a state grant.

TRG Customer Solutions and the governor's office said the company would increase its local workforce from 300 to 420.

Estimates vary on how many employees TRG has since hired in Hampton. But the ranks soon could be down to zero, at least for a while.

TRG will lay off 371 people, beginning April 30, according to the state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act website. The federal WARN law requires postings of corporate layoffs and plant closings.

That number represents the call center's total workforce, said Catherine Doherty, chief people officer of the Jacksonville, Fla.-based company, which provides customer support for businesses.

"TRG remains committed to the Hampton community and is actively seeking new business for the center," Doherty said. "We are unable to comment further at this time."

In a January 2011 news release announcing TRG's expansion, McDonnell's office said the Virginia Department of Business Assistance "will provide funding and services to support the company's recruitment and training activities." It didn't identify the amount.

The state had offered TRG a total of $290,000 in incentives but paid only about $80,500 to help train workers, McDonnell's spokesman, Jeff Caldwell, said in an email Monday.

That came to about $805.50 for each of 100 additional employees hired, based on an average salary of about $10 an hour, said Duc Truong, senior operations manager of the Business Assistance Department.

TRG said in its application in early 2011 that it had 355 employees and later reported hiring 100 more, Truong said.

That would have raised total employment to 455 - different from the number announced in the company's and state's news releases last year and the number cited by the TRG executive Monday.

But here is the part of the story I thought was particularly funny:

The state is still ahead financially, Truong said, because it makes back the amount of the grants within three months in tax revenue from the added workers.

Since June 2011, Truong said, Virginia has strengthened its oversight of the grants.

Agreements now specify that companies might have to reimburse the money if "the facility closes within one year of receiving the investment funds... or if fraud has been discovered by an audit."

Notice first off how Duc Truong doesn't provide any specific figures to back up the claim that the state made the money back that it gave to the company. Secondly, its nice to know that Virginia now has has new rules in place regarding corporate grants welfare that it should have had all along.


Bonus: "I'm gonna leave this town...in a cloud of dust"

Lockheed Martin To Lay Off More Than 150 (Virginia)

Cutbacks in defense war and space program spending were the reason for this layoff notice. Here is the Virginian-Pilot with the details:

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin has notified the state that it plans to lay off more than 150 workers in Hampton Roads next month.

About 92 of the layoffs, affecting workers in Norfolk and Suffolk, are related to the closing of U.S. Joint Forces Command, or JFCOM, according to Lockheed. They are scheduled to take effect April 6.

Sixty-five layoffs are planned because of the loss of a contract at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton. They will take effect April 30.

"As a result of the disestablishment of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, as announced by the Department of Defense in 2010, Lockheed Martin's current contract work is nearing its end date," John O'Sullivan, a Lockheed spokesman, wrote in an email. "Our primary goal is to retain our employees and assist in finding them work on other contracts."

Notices of Lockheed's pending layoffs are posted on a state website in compliance with federal law.

Welcome back, my friends, to the brave new world of austerity...


Bonus: ...and the show that never ends

LightSquared Dims As 45% Of Workforce Is Slashed

How about that? The pun in the title of this post isn't even mine. It comes from the original article, which appeared in Slash Gear.com:

Things around the LightSquared offices have to be looking dim at this point. While the managers of the company continue to fight to get their proposed wireless 4G network approved, denials keep streaming in. LightSquared has announced that is having take rather drastic measures to save money and attempt to stay afloat. The company has announced that it is shedding 45% of its 330 person workforce.

The company called the layoffs a “prudent and necessary” measure to save money. This week LightSquared missed a payment on a $56 million loan to a British company that operates satellites called in Inmarsat. Last week the FCC revoked permission granted LightSquared to move ahead with wireless network plans. The problem with LightSquared’s plan is that the FCC found the service interfered with a significant amount of GPS devices on the market today.

Anytime it is "prudent and necessary" to cut nearly half of your work force, your company is in deep, deep trouble.


Bonus: "Some people work very hard...but still they never get it right"

Hanover Direct Mail Order Distribution Center (Virginia) Laying Off 189

Here's another sign of the slowdown in the economy and probably a contributing factor to the Postal Service's latest announced massive losses, from Roanoke.com:

Mail-order distributor Hanover Direct is laying off 189 employees from its Roanoke County distribution center, according to the Virginia Workforce Center website, which lists closures and layoffs.
The layoffs at the 750,000-square-foot center on Hollins Road are effective April 27, according to the website.

Hanover Direct's brands include The Company Store, Domestications, UnderGear, Scandia Home and Silhouettes.

Here is the reaction from the county:

Roanoke County's acting economic development director, Jill Loope, said the county is saddened by the job losses.

"We are working with Hanover Direct on these developments," Loope said. "We'll continue to help the company and their employees through this transition."

It doesn't sound to me like the company needs any help from you there, Ms. Loope. They seem to be able to lay off their employees quite easily on their own.

Potomac Supply (Virginia) Files for Bankruptcy

Looks like we have another housing crash victim. Here is the Northern Neck News with the details:

After announcing its temporary closing two weeks ago, Potomac Supply has now filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Under Chapter 11, Potomac Supply will attempt to reorganize its business structure to pay off creditors and reopen the business. The company filed for bankruptcy last Friday.

“All options are on the table that are afforded by this petition,” said Bill Carden, CEO of Potomac Supply. “Our goals remain to find solutions that will benefit our employees, creditors, community, shareholders and our bank.”

The petition will have to be heard in a bankruptcy court. Any creditors that Potomac Supply may have will be allowed to make a statement in the court and a judge has the final say in approving any reorganizational plan Potomac Supply develops in the Chapter 11 proceedings.

County officials have also been working with Potomac Supply since August in an effort to help the county’s largest employer keep its doors open.

“We are limited in what we can do since it is a private business,” said County Administrator Norm Risavi. “We’ve put them in contact with other organizations that may be able to help.”

Some of those organizations, Risavi said, are the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development and other small business groups.

Risavi said that even though the county cannot provide financial assistance, it does have a stake in the future of Potomac Supply.

“They are a big taxpayer in the county,” Risavi said. “That would have an impact on the county’s resources.”

Irritatingly, I had to do a Google search on the company to find out a little bit more about it (and get the above photo):

Potomac Supply Corporation in Kinsale, VA is a private company categorized under Lumber-Treating. Our records show it was established in 1946 and incorporated in Virginia. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $23,500,000 and employs a staff of approximately 200.

Hmmm...66-year old company that is the largest taxpayer (and probably employer) in its home county. Yet another sad tale of the collapse of small town America.

Yes, Virginia, Our State Pension Fund is $20 Billion in the Hole

As part of my continued and ongoing public service to demonstrate to Americans in both the private and public sector that the pensions they are counting on to support them in their "golden" years will not be there for them when they retire, here is another scary such story out of the Old Dominion:

Virginia's retirement system, considered fiscally sound just two years ago, is now $20 billion short of what it owes public employees, a massive liability that threatens the fund's stability as Gov. Bob McDonnell prepares to send his first budget request to the General Assembly.

State lawmakers struggling to cover multibillion dollar holes in the state's budget since 2008 reduced what they were paying into the pension fund, shorting it by $1.6 billion this year alone, the Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, a bipartisan government oversight panel, reported Monday. At the same time, the fund's investments soured. That one-two punch means the gap between how much the fund has and what it owes grew from $12 billion in 2009 to $20 billion in 2011, a 69 percent increase over the two years.

With McDonnell's backing, lawmakers lowered already flailing pension contributions by $620 million in 2010 for the two-year budget ending June 30, 2012. There is no minimum requirement for the state to make toward retirement benefits, and since 1992 the General Assembly has fully funded its obligations to the fund for public employees only four times and just twice for teachers. Auditors recommended lawmakers establish a minimum contribution level.

If you are an employee of the state of Virginia, you should take heart that this is just a microcosm of what is happening all around the country every day...short-sighted and craven politicians kicking the can down the road by kicking the shit out of your very future. And just to be clear, this is NOT a partisan issue, as Virginia has been run by governors and legislative majorities of both parties at various times since 1992.

I would say you should get angry and demand that this kind of bullshit be stopped, but it is far too late for that at this point. The time to get angry was about 30 years ago when that Hollywood rodeo clown we installed in the White House first started sodomizing the working and middle classes without even the courtesy of giving them a reach around. But hey, tens of millions of them voted for it, and have continued to vote for it in every election since then, so maybe they really don't have any right to complain about it.


Bonus: Bill slams Reagan, "Let's put him UNDER Mt. Rushmore"