Wow Steve, You really didn't do you homework on this one. Perhap's your personal experience of being let go from Grainger is clouding your judgement. As for the vacant buildings on Enterprise drive, did you verify if the TIF money was paid, earned or paid back or are you just theorizing? TIFs are not handouts. There are very specific criteria that a company agrees to meet or the money is not earned, usually in the form of tax forgiveness. If not, then you pay full taxes. Yes it is montiored. Any business has a choice where to build facilities and TIFs are a way to attract them. Grainger recently did extensive building to make room for 300 new jobs in Janesville, they could have located those jobs somewhere else. You accuse Grainger of being "cash rich" as though it were a bad thing. Seems like exactly the type of smart company that our city should be attracting.

Are they adding jobs or covering attrition? It's much like the employment news. The economy added x number of jobs in x month. However, it also lost jobs.

Steve,
It's too bad you didn't get the facts on this. No one is losing a job, in fact no one even has to leave Grainger with the acquistion if they don't want to. They're also adding another 75 jobs to Credit/Collections in the first half of 2011. Things were shaky for a while but that was the restructuring and a few unfortunate people did lose jobs. I feel very positive on the direction the company is going in Janesville.

Just so you know, TIF grants often have "golden handcuffs" that tie the money to specific employment targets through a certain date. If these targets are not maintained, the city can sue to recover (claw back) the grant monies. They are doing this in the LiquiPur instance. Unfortunately, this is civil contract law, and that's the most they can do; and they can't recover funds from bankrupt businesses any better than any other creditor.
http://gazettextra.com/news/2010/mar/16/...
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Sadly, economic development is a very competitive process. There are many other cities with the same or better resources and just as desperate a need for jobs. The one thing Janesville has up its sleeve is the special DOZ (development opportunity zone) authorization granted by the outgoing legislature, which is something like a super-TIF. I know the city has mentioned using it in at least one article the Gazette has run, but mostly it seems to be something they're holding up their sleeve as a bargaining chip.
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You do touch on one of the weaknesses of the TIF process. The Wisconsin legislation requires that development pass a "but for" test, i.e., this development or expansion would not happen but for the TIF support. It's pretty easy to make that case for almost anything (especially since the state DOR is loathe to override municipalities trying to keep jobs), and leaves the grants and loans pragmatically in a sort of bribery zone. In Chicago, under Illinois law, they've been widely abused.
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It's worth remembering the tradeoff in a TIF is that while theoretically the development and other improvements result in a higher property tax basis at the end of the district's lifetime, during that lifetime, the city and schools and any other taxing entities are cheated of the higher property taxes generated, because they can only be used for ... this sort of bribery.
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I'm not anti-TIF, I'm just a guy who wants to look at these things pragmatically, even with a jaundiced eye. It's a crude tool and it's far from perfect. But there's not much else in the toolbox for municipal officials.

So, they should have just let the company sink and eventually be closed? That would have been a great idea. At least now the people still have an opportunity to keep working. And I hope every company in Janesville just made money while people were reading this. That's the whole idea behind companies. But in your world we'd all sit around and sing Kumbya, and everthing would be rainbows and unicorns. To think that this was a cold emotionless process is naive thinking. Most companies I've worked in no matter how large, the owners put their sweat and tears into the business, and if there was upheaval, they didn't take joy in the fact that people were let go.

Except for an SUV doesn't have a family to feed or insure, it doesn't have emotions about why somebody would want to sell it even though it did a great job for them every day. I'm sorry, but an entity that would rather make a penny and let an employee go vs. keeping an employee and losing a penny doesn't belong in an area that has been destroyed over the last few years by massive layoffs. It just unfairly raises hopes. In my opinion, Grainger saw a wounded animal and took advantage of the situation. That's how large businesses keep getting larger. So, Steve, thanks for writing this. Grainger probably just made another $227k during this comment.

Good thing that our city business division doesn't hold the same views as you. Believe it or not Steve, big businesses aren't always evil. Gordon Gekko is not in charge of Grainger. Not every business is going to be the Bailey Buildiing and Loan and the people running businesses aren't going to be George Bailey. Try to have a vision beyond your attention span, and understand that businesses will do whatever they have to to stay profitable. Kind of like running a household. If something is too costly to operator (ie an SUV) you either sell it or replace it with something that is within your operating budget. It seems to me you wrote this with vengance as your primary motive. Shame on you Steve especially after your last Christmas vs. Xmas drivel of a blog. But hey, sour grapes can sometimes bear a fine cognac. Merry Xmas!

When Lab Safety bought Highsmith a few years ago, they bought the Highsmith employees as well. (Those that were willing to work at the Janesville building, anyway.) (...and yes, I was there when it happened.) So, now the reverse is true. With the now Grainger's sale of Highsmith, is the sale of those same employees. Although I see that they are stating that those employees are going to be given the choice to stay on at the Janesville facility working with Grainger brands if they don't want to go with Highsmith. Must feel terrible to have so much upheaval with Highsmith in such short time frames, but at least they still have jobs! : )

steve did you read the whole story.You would have seen they are on track to meet there goal. of new hire's also there is a council seat comeing open.