"These companies have other options.'Ĭhandler City Attorney Kay Bigelow said in the case of PayPal and GM, the jobs and their related economic impact on the local economy are considered a public benefit.
Jobs are what drive a community,'' he said. "We do operate in a competitive environment.
Micah Miranda, Chandler's economic development director, said incentives such as these are important tools designed to attract companies that will bring jobs to the city. The company initially said it would hire 500 workers and eventually employ 1,000 in Chandler.
#PAYPAL CAREERS CHANDLER SOFTWARE#
The center is the company's fourth in the nation, where developers design software applications to boost internal productivity and improve customer service at GM manufacturing plants and dealerships across the globe. The GM Arizona IT Innovation Center, which opened last year northeast of the Loop 202 and Price Road, would receive $787,500 in the upcoming fiscal year, followed by $168,750 in each of the following two fiscal years, according to city projections. The customer-service center employed nearly 1,800 workers as of the end of February, according to city records reviewed by the Republic. PayPal, a subsidiary of online-auction giant eBay, headquartered in San Jose, moved into a Chandler building located on Price Road about a quarter mile south of the Loop 202 freeway in late 2010. The largest single chunk is for a payment of slightly more than $1.5 million to PayPal, one of the world's largest e-commerce firms, providing electronic payment services globally. In Chandler's deals with PayPal and General Motors, payments are based on actual jobs created over time. But the planned payouts illustrate the fact that economic development incentives, often touted when recruiting companies and corporate projects, amount to real money when they are eventually paid out, usually much later and with little fanfare. The legality of Chandler's payments is not in question.
The court said the public benefit received from that deal was not comparable to the incentive provided by the city of Phoenix, as required under state law. The rules for offering such incentives have been more closely scrutinized since a 2010 Arizona Supreme Court ruling that criticized a deal struck for the City North development in northeast Phoenix. The payments to PayPal and General Motors, both located along the city's Price Road Corridor, are included in the city's 2015-16 budget proposal as part of a nearly $10 million allocation from a Strategic Economic Development Reserve Fund.Īdditional payments also are part of the proposed spending, including money to support two major downtown projects the city hopes will break ground within the next year.Ĭhandler's projected outlay for 2015-16 offers several examples of how a city can offer publicly financed incentives that will attract private businesses to their community, bringing jobs and tax revenue. Chandler is preparing to pay more than $2 million in taxpayer funds to two corporate giants as part of an agreement that promised the incentives in exchange for bringing jobs to the city.
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