Tornado Alley (PROG)

[oldberkeley]

$140,000 in state aid:
Romney supporters in Ohio who built businesses had government help

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/07/31/ohioans-who-built-businesses-had-help.html

[This is from my local paper, The Columbus Dispatch, a blatantly right-wing Republican rag, who very reluctantly published it hidden away deep inside. I don't think it got any national coverage, but it should have.]

By Alan Johnson and Joe Vardon
Columbus Dispatch
Tuesday July 31, 2012 7:03 AM

Ohio business leaders recruited by Mitt Romney’s campaign to assert “we built it” have received more than $140,000 in state development aid.

And while the Ohio man featured in Romney’s new Web ad, unveiled yesterday, received no direct government aid in building his business, his company has benefited from millions of dollars in government contracts.

The executives’ comments came in response to President Barack Obama’s remarks this month: “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

Last week, the Romney camp lined up business leaders across the country to essentially retort: Did too build that!

For instance, Steve Miller, president of Millwood Inc. in Trumbull County, talked about when he began his business. “I couldn’t put my faith in the government or the banks — no one wanted to talk to me.”

A little more than a decade later, however, Millwood received a state tax break of $44,226, records at the Ohio Department of Development show.

Kenneth Seilkop, CEO of Seilkop Industries in Cincinnati, also blasted Obama: “Over the years, we have grown and expanded the company, all at personal risk. During this time, not once did the government offer to bail us out. Not once were we exempt from paying our taxes. To this day, my wife and I, along with our son, personally guarantee all of the finances.”

Seilkop Industries was approved on July 25, 2011, for a state Job Creation Tax Credit worth $29,015 over five years to help the company create 25 jobs, state records show. The tax credits are supposed to start this year.

The president of Service Spring Corp. in Toledo took part in a Romney campaign “We Did Build This” event last week near Toledo. The company received an Ohio Workforce Guarantee in the amount of $70,000 in 2005, the Development Department said.

Chris Maloney, spokesman for Romney for President, responded: “Just as it’s the American people and our businesses which pay the taxes to construct our roads, schools and libraries, they also pour their livelihoods, their credit and everything they have into growing their businesses. The president’s unscripted words illustrate for every American that he lacks not only an appreciation for their hard work, but also knowledge in how the private sector and our economy truly operate.”

Dennis Sollmann, president of Sollmann Electric Co. in Sidney in Shelby County, is featured in Romney’s new ad.

Among Sollmann’s comments: “He was trying to say: ‘Hey, you didn’t build that business on your own. The government helped you build it.’ And that’s what ticked me off more than anything.”

Sollmann Electric has received millions of dollars in publicly funded contracts for schools, colleges and other government entities.

One of the largest was for a project featured on Sollmann’s website, http://www.sollmannelectric.com/. It was a $2.8 million contract for electrical work on a $48.3 million high-school and junior-high-school construction project in St. Marys. The contract was approved by the Ohio School Facilities Commission based on a bidding process. The state picked up $29.5 million of the total cost, with the local district responsible for the remainder.

Sollmann also received state-approved, bid contracts for work on several other primary and secondary schools, as well as Central State University in Wilberforce and James A. Rhodes State College in Lima.

Sollmann did not return a call to his business office seeking comment yesterday.

[e-mail]