Why doesn't Oklahoma compete and win big manufacturing plants

[Swanky]

You do realize Oklahoma screwed over the auto industry a couple decades ago with the Tinker site, right?

I am not familiar with this - could you fill me in?

[Mott]

I am not familiar with this - could you fill me in?

The old story was that the OKC bigwigs, (and State), made a handshake deal that the GM plant wouldn’t pay (property) taxes. And after opening the local school board (Midwest City) went to court for taxes for school system, and won. I knew someone working in the Chamber of Commerce office, in the Santa Fe parking garage, and they kept a WSJ article about OK screwing (opinion) GM and the City wasn’t too be trusted. Helped on work trains, building the yard, and switched the plant till it closed, quite an operation it was. I don’t think the history had anything to closing, GM just lost so much market share, and had way too many factories. Who knows.

[Ward]

The old story was that the OKC bigwigs, (and State), made a handshake deal that the GM plant wouldn’t pay (property) taxes. And after opening the local school board (Midwest City) went to court for taxes for school system, and won. I knew someone working in the Chamber of Commerce office, in the Santa Fe parking garage, and they kept a WSJ article about OK screwing (opinion) GM and the City wasn’t too be trusted. Helped on work trains, building the yard, and switched the plant till it closed, quite an operation it was. I don’t think the history had anything to closing, GM just lost so much market share, and had way too many factories. Who knows.

Yes, that's correct. It was apparently more than a handshake deal, from what I was told. It involved property taxs on the GM OKC Assembly Plant. There was a young female attorney by the name of Lana Tyree, who alledgedly was trying to make a big name and big reputation for herself, as I was told back then. GM lost the lawsuit, and you can certainly say that OKC and the employees who made wages and paid taxes and the other taxpayers who benefitted from all the HUGE amount of money the GM Plant brought into the local economy, which would have been way much more than One Million Dollars.

Promises and agreements were made, Lane Tyree got her name and image on the news blah blah blah, and that's the way it went. Oh, and guess what? She got paid ONE MILLION DOLLARS for her "work" in this fiasco.

[Jersey Boss]

Yes, that's correct. It was apparently more than a handshake deal, from what I was told. It involved property taxs on the GM OKC Assembly Plant. There was a young female attorney by the name of Lana Tyree, who alledgedly was trying to make a big name and big reputation for herself, as I was told back then. GM lost the lawsuit, and you can certainly say that OKC and the employees who made wages and paid taxes and the other taxpayers who benefitted from all the HUGE amount of money the GM Plant brought into the local economy, which would have been way much more than One Million Dollars.

Promises and agreements were made, Lane Tyree got her name and image on the news blah blah blah, and that's the way it went. Oh, and guess what? She got paid ONE MILLION DOLLARS for her "work" in this fiasco.

The bottom line is the GM legal department did not do due diligence in determining the legality of the the unauthorized agreement.
That deal failing was negligence on the part of GM.
Midtowner had a post on this subject with the details awile back.

[Mott]

The bottom line is the GM legal department did not do due diligence in determining the legality of the the unauthorized agreement.
That deal failing was negligence on the part of GM.
Midtowner had a post on this subject with the details awile back.

That’s correct, the old statement, you get what you pay for applies.