May 7th, 2019 by WCBC Radio
With the region still reeling from last week’s announcement that Verso is closing the Luke Paper Mill on June 30th, a lot of the focus has been on finding replacement jobs for the nearly 700 workers that will be unemployed, and others who will lose their jobs in associated fields.
Don’t count District 1A Delegate Wendell Beitzel among them. Beitzel believes the best course of action is to either convince Verso to keep the mill open, or to find a buyer and keep the facility as a paper mill…
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May 07, 2019 at 6:32 am, mac said:
It’s deja vu all over again.
Does anyone remember the 80s and the dreaded “give backs’?
When an employer with a significant number of employees stated that they were shutting down the state and federal government would give back a reduced tax burden and supplement employee wages to help the employer keep operating.
I remember a metal plating company in southeast
Ohio that did just that. For the next six months the employees were back at work breaking down the equipment and packing it up to be moved to Mexico, the new business location.
The company fulfilled it’s obliged time span and the employees still lost their jobs.
To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Verso will pull the same tactic, if it is offered, and will laugh all the way to the bank.
May 07, 2019 at 7:55 am, mac said:
> Here’s the ultimate insult that I forgot to add. In order to keep the business operating the employees agreed to take a pay cut to keep their jobs.
May 07, 2019 at 1:48 pm, Joe Wellberg said:
> fact verso operates in the biggest property tax states including its HQ. But Luke seems to have low property taxes. Why doesn’t Verso consolidate its plants in Luke, WV and TN and move its HQ to West Virginia where the property tax bill is smaller and incorporate in TN with no Corporate tax.
May 07, 2019 at 1:38 pm, Joe Wellberg said:
Good proposal. Maybe verso should shut down its high property tax locations and keep Luke open
May 07, 2019 at 1:40 pm, Joe Wellberg said:
> Location Verso should shut down. Its Ohio HQ and Ohio plants and move its HQ to Mineral County,WV and transfer its Ohio plant employees to Luke
May 07, 2019 at 1:46 pm, Joe Wellberg said:
> I was wrong. Its other plants are in High Property tax states. They should move them all to Luke and move its HQ to Keyser. Funny they want to shut down the mill with the lowest Property Tax bill and keep open its biggest property tax locations and they all have big gas prices in the country.