DHL may get tax breaks to return to facility it abandoned

Shipping giant DHL was happy to receive corporate welfare - even in an era when assistance to poor families was being slashed.

In 1998, DHL got $17,000,000 from Kentucky taxpayers to help construct airplane parking areas at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

Around 2004, DHL opened a $220,000,000 building at this airfield. But DHL abandoned the airport entirely in 2005 - taking the taxpayers' parking lot money with it and leaving its brand-new building empty. DHL moved out of Kentucky and went to Wilmington, Ohio.

Then DHL pulled out of domestic U.S. business entirely. DHL largely abandoned Wilmington, leaving 5,000 people out of work just in that small town. Only its international business remains there.

Now DHL is considering returning to the airport in northern Kentucky. If it does so, it may again be on the backs of the taxpayers. That's because Kentucky has just approved nearly $2,000,000 in tax breaks for the shipper. This too is in effect corporate welfare.

We all want and need jobs in this region, but honestly, how much is going to be spent on corporate welfare?

Also, DHL is no longer an American-based company. It's headquartered in Bonn, Germany. Shouldn't our priorities be with American firms?

It's bad enough DHL left the area after getting all that state money for its airplane parking lot. Hopefully, the lot hasn't become full of potholes in the years DHL has left it behind.

(Source: http://nky.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20090331/BIZ01/903310340)