I’ll check it out.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17808622

Yes, COMIDA wastes a lot of money that ought to be better spent.

If anything, this is the kind of case that shows what COMIDA could do if it were being run honestly and correctly.

We ought to tally up the money that COMIDA allocates– good and bad. My guess is that we’d find that the appropriate allocations are at best 25% and maybe only 10% of the total.

I’ll look further at the math as I may have read the original release too too fast.

The press release discusses the cost of the project. @ 396K. Typically that is the amount of benefit to the company. I missed the “up to ” part in the D&C.

But - one point does not a trend make and a stopped watch is correct twice a day and COMIDA may have done with this project but…

In short, they are using RF (”Radio Frequency”: electromagnetic waves roughly like the ones that carry your radio or TV signal) to heat stuff; in their case, I think they’re doing welding inside a vacuum chamber. That “stuff” has to be conductive– it sounds like they are heating metals.

This *is* the kind of company we need to encourage to be and stay in our area. Good, technical, factory, and R&D jobs that support the sale of products, probably all over the world.

Again, credit where credit is due– this is a good act by COMIDA (I’ll point out that if you look for my other comments about COMIDA, they are pretty negative).

Also, I think your math is wrong. The article said:

sales tax breaks on $396,500 that Induction Atmospheres LLC plans to spend

Unless I’m reading it wrong, it amounts to giving the company about $32K to keep 15 jobs in the area.

Let’s guess these are good paying jobs. So a rough estimate might be that the $32K in sales tax waivers might generate:

- $750K - $1M in wages
- $40K - $80K in sales tax
- $10k - $20K in county property taxes
- $30K - $50K in other property (i.e., school) taxes

per year.

It is on my list to look at the company - anyone else feel free to pipe in.

There are 15 FTEs in company. Is credit due to keeping all these people here? No, they are adding 2 jobs. Taking ~400K in sales tax breaks creating 2 FTEs.

Do the math - 200K per job.

The County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency on Tuesday approved sales tax breaks on $396,500 that Induction Atmospheres LLC plans to spend on renovating and equipping a 37,000-square-foot building in Rochester Technology Park in Gates. The company currently operates in 16,000 square feet at the technology park.

The industrial heating system company employs the equivalent of 15 full-time workers and plans to add two more, according to COMIDA.

This is one of the COMIDA projects that sounds beneficial to the community: helping to keep a company in town that would otherwise move.

Hotels? Schools? Not likely to go anywhere. I’m not sure I see the economic benefit in those projects.