Reader comments
Box Elder 'win' praised

Most Excellent! This is a WIN WIN! Yeah!

What a joke! Doesn�t anyone else see the negative consequences of this deal that the State of Utah and Box Elder County are making with Proctor & Gamble? This is a benefit to Proctor & Gamble and the farm owners that will cash in on the land sale but few others will benefit.

They are building on green fertile farm land, land that is disappearing fast in the County. Box Elder County has been experiencing increasing pollution with I-15 and I-84 running through the county and no emissions testing plus now they are losing green fields for another manufacturing business.

Proctor & Gamble is receiving $85 millions in tax dollars to subsidize their investment (not including miscellaneous county improvements that will be required). They are following in the steps of about a dozen other companies that have done the same in Box Elder County recently. For example Nucor Building Systems is building a new plant under a similar deal. This leaves individual taxpayers responsible for a larger portion of property taxes. Box Elder School District has put forth a $70 million election bond that will result in an increase of 16% to resident�s property taxes.

Statements have been made that the average wage in Box Elder is around $21,000 per year and the new P&G jobs will pay an average of $42,000 per year. The missing information is that the reason why the average wage is $21,000 is because most women in Box Elder stay home like good Mormons and the husband makes over $42,000 per year. Actually census information for 2004 states that the average household income is $48,000 so these jobs making toilet paper really aren�t that good. For example, ATK (Thiokol) pays $60,000 to $90,000 per year and many jobs are white collar. These jobs will actually lower average household income in the area.

Does anyone think that P&G e is going to move somewhere that they will have to pay high wages? No, just like Wal-Mart distribution center, Nucor Building Systems, Malt-O-Meal, Lazyboy, Tartar Gate, Liberty Foods and others, they move to Box Elder because they can pay lower wages. Other companies that have moved to Box Elder have brought in the high paying positions from out of State. Only a few high positions were filled locally. Those employees were stolen from other local companies and were paid a very similar wage anyways but now leave a company that didn't get a multi-million dollar tax subsidy to suffer with filling a now vacant position.

Box Elder County has 80% more residents 65 years or older then the State average. These retirees are now left with a higher property tax burden. Along with what is left of the farmers in the County until the new $42,000 workers build that new subdivision on neighboring farm land. I predict that illegal aliens and meth addicts will be the majority of Proctor & Gamble employees, probably living in the Malad, Idaho area.