World Shooting and Recreational Complex

The World Shooting and Recreational Complex, located near Sparta Il and currently hosting the Grand American, is scheduled to close, by order of Gov. Rauner, sometime after the end of the Grand American.

I caught on the news this morning that the WSRC costs about $3 million per year to operate and generates about $1.2 million in revenues and another $40,000 in sales taxes for Sparta, meaning the state has to provide $1.8 million per year in subsidies to keep the complex open.

According to this press release, the Complex provided around 250 jobs when it first opened, but no indication how many the facility employs currently and of course there are the ancillary jobs generated by visitors to the center, such as in motels and restaurants. The question becomes, do these jobs generate enough to warrant infusing $1.8 million in tax dollars into the complex annually?

Intertape Polymer

The Carbondale Observer brings up a good point about the Intertape Polymer ordinance passed last night, giving a total of $246,500 in land and forgivable loans to the corporation, with the provision that the corporation retain its current number of employees and add a minimum of 37 to its payroll bringing the total to 105.  As the Observer points out, this amounts to a one-time subsidy of $6662.12 per job. 

Is paying a corporation for jobs a good use of tax dollars?  In most cases, the research says "no" as they are usually accompanied by poor or no oversight.  Assuming the city does provide oversight and the jobs do remain for the five year period covered by the agreement, this might be a worthwhile subsidy, though.  I have no idea what type of jobs will come in, but assuming they meet last year's US average of $43,000 per year, they would bring in $7,955,000 to the local economy at a cost to the taxpayers of about 3.1% per job.  Given that about 20% of the subsidy was in land that the city did  not appear to have much chance of selling in the near future and that we are seeing approximately $1 billion in equipment transferred in or purchased for use at the expanded facility, again helping stimulate the economy, right now this seems a pretty good investment by the city.