Don't mess with Texas.....because you'll get salmonella

If you have been following the news at all in recent weeks you will be well aware of the salmonella outbreak that has resulted in over 600 illnesses and potentially 8 deaths. These illnesses and deaths have been traced to peanut products processed by Peanut Corp. of America's Georgia facility and potentially its Plainview, Texas facility as well.

First, let me state that I do not believe that only the higher ups in Peanut Corp. of America should be hung by their tits and testicles in a public forum. No. I think all the employees at these plants should join the bosses. I don't believe for one minute that these employees didn't know what was going on (the filth, the rats, the feces, etc.) and elected to do nothing. No whistle-blowing to the appropriate authorities and/or agencies. No anonymous reports to local news organizations. Nothing. They are just as guilty and should suffer the same consequences as do their bosses and managers; which I really believe should be a public hanging.

Second, let's hear it for good ol Texas. Yep. That bastion of "Don't mess with Texas,". That "Hey! We gave you W. Weren't you lucky?!" That state that makes it alright to shoot and kill a person in the process of repossessing your automobile. Yep. Texas.

How about this bit of news from the folks who are supposed to be watching out for the health and welfare of fellow Texans, "The plant in the Panhandle city of Plainview, which employs about 30 people, must close indefinitely after operating unlicensed and uninspected for nearly four years since it opened in 2005." (courtesy of http://www.wsbtv.com/news/18707694/detail.html#-)

Look at that again: unlicensed and uninspected for at least three years. Okay. One could make a variety of excuses as to why this plant remained both unlicensed and uninspected for so long, but check out this additional information from the same article, "David W. Evans, executive director of the Hale County Industrial Foundation, said the company was lured to the area with tax breaks and
incentives for maintaining an employee quota. He said that quota wasn't met." So it is clear that the State of Texas, and whatever other local taxing authorities were involved in this deal, were well aware that the plant both existed and was in operation during this time period, yet somehow the state and/or local authorities never bothered to ask themselves "Hey? Is the plant licensed? Has it been inspected since starting operations?" But don't worry because it gets even better.

Again, from the same article, "Health department spokesman Doug McBride said it was up to Peanut Corp. to inform its clients of the recall, but it wasn't immediately clear if the company was complying."

Can I get a What The Fuck?

Let me get this straight, the Texas department of Health wants the company who has been knowingly selling tainted peanut products without a license or inspection to exercise due diligence and notify its customers that they need to return any and all of Peanut Corp. of America's products. (when I say "knowingly" I should add an allegedly, but I think we can all agree that they knew based upon what has come out thus far in news reports)

Huh? Are you fucking kidding me? This is an example of the full power of the Texas Department of Health? This is an example of the Department of Health's concern for further potential victims of this salmonella outbreak? Jesus fucking tap-dancing christ.

Amazing. But should we expect anything more from a state that put in an express lane for executing prisoners when the rest of the nation has found many death penalty inmates to be not-guilty after DNA evidence has been examined when such wasn't possible during the original trial? Go Texas!

But this story isn't just about corporate greed, corruption, laissez fair employees and Texas being pretty much at the bottom of any semblance of intelligence. No. It's actually a story with two concerns.

Let us return to one of the above quotes, but jump right to the most interesting part, "...the company was lured to the area with tax breaks and incentives for
maintaining an employee quota. He said that quota wasn't met." If you follow the news on a regular basis you will regularly, and sometimes frequently, come across articles about how governments (local, county and/or state) will offer companies all sorts of incentives to lure them to build plants/open stores in their tax district. Often they will cut or completely remove things like impact fees, corporate income tax, offer to build roads, etc. on based upon the notion that if you can attract a business to your community it will, even with all the tax/fee breaks, generate income through employment.

Really?

I have yet to read one single news piece that has researched whether or not this policy of rolling out the red carpet actually results in a net benefit to the tax base for any given location across this nation. The Peanunt Corp. of America clearly received some sort of incentives to locate to Plainview, but it also (apparently) didn't live up to part of the bargain. So what was done about this issue? Did the relevant taxing authorities come in and say "Sorry. You haven't lived up to your end of the bargain/our expectations, so you need to start paying property taxes/income taxes/reimburse us for those impact fees we waived." Do you really think this is happening? I don't.

I think companies go out of their way to convince government authorities that offering all those breaks to attract them will help grow the local economy through employment, sales taxes, employment taxes, etc., but I haven't seen anything in the way of a study done to show whether or not this sort of sweet-heart deal actually results in a benefit to the taxing authorities. Not one. And here is an example where a company hasn't lived up to it's promise, but nothing is done and I want to know why. Actually the people of Texas should be asking why.

But it seems pretty clear that Texans aren't on the ball anyway.