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Old General Motors sites could receive $800M for clean up

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The Obama administration on Tuesday proposed a trust fund of more than $800 million to pay for the cleanup of closed General Motors sites in 14 states, including one in Indianapolis and one in Kokomo.

President Barack Obama, speaking in Youngstown, Ohio, which is near a GM assembly plant, called the trust a "landmark agreement to help dozens of communities like Youngstown revitalize and redevelop old, shuttered GM facilities, preparing them for new industries, new jobs and new opportunity."

Ed Montgomery, who leads the White House Council on Automotive Communities and Workers, said the fund would clean up nearly 90 properties shuttered in the GM bankruptcy.

The proposed sites include the Indianapolis Stamping plant on the west side and the former GM Delco Plant 5 in Kokomo.

He said it represented the largest environmental and economic development effort for former manufacturing sites.

The cleanup plan will help raze or rehabilitate dozens of vacant manufacturing facilities and offices left barren by GM's government-led bankruptcy last year. Montgomery announced the cleanup at a conference sponsored by the White House and the Brookings Institution on the future of automotive communities affected by the industry's downsizing.

More than half of the sites are in Michigan, and others are located in Ohio, Indiana and New York. The fund will "take these properties and once again make them productive assets for your towns and communities," Montgomery said.

The Obama administration declined to provide a full list of the sites, but some of them include: former GM plants in Wilmington, Del.; Kansas City, Kan.; Shreveport, La.; Pontiac, Mich.; Flint, Mich.; Lansing, Mich.; and Moraine, Ohio. Other facilities are located in Syracuse, N.Y.; Janesville, Wis.; West Mifflin, Pa.; Fredericksburg, Va.; Framingham, Mass.; Danville, Ill., and Trenton, N.J.

General Motors received $50 billion in government aid to get through its bankruptcy last year. GM has repaid $6.7 billion that the government considered loans, with the remaining $43.3 billion converted to a 61 percent stake in the automaker.

GM said Monday that its net income rose to $865 million in the first quarter. Company officials have said a public stock offering — a key step in the government eventually selling its ownership stake — could come later this year or in 2011.

White House economic adviser Larry Summers gave an upbeat assessment of the company's future, saying there was a "real prospect of the government recovering most, if not all, of its investment" in GM.

Montgomery and Summers said the environmental plan would provide $536 million for the cleanup of properties and about $300 million to help states and communities pay for property taxes, demolition costs, plant security and other expenses.

The funding comes from $1.2 billion provided by the Treasury Department to wind down the "bad" assets of GM set aside in the company's bankruptcy.

The administration plans to work with states to finalize the plan and will present the framework of the cleanup to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York for approval.

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said the rehabilitation of the manufacturing sites would help states trying to lure "green" manufacturing jobs such as battery production, wind turbines and solar panels.

"We want to make these sites the place for them to locate," Granholm said.

Granholm said environmental concerns have been the biggest barrier to redeveloping the state's 47 sites covered by the agreement. She said Michigan officials are talking with several companies who are interested in the locations.


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  1. something to take iman's mind off CART,,,the league itsownself doesn't do it

  2. Someone mentioned a green roof. Every designer of a new urban building should be required to at least explore the feasibility of a green roof. The ability to cut carbon dioxide, save precious rainwater (drought this summer??) and re-use grey water, cool the building cheaper, and improve the view for neighbors, should be, not only the good neighbor thing to do, it should be the responsible neighbor thing to do. Too bad the city didn't require it when they gave up downtown green space for the Simon Building. Surprised they aren't requiring it now.

  3. About the same means down, like the TV ratings.

    My favorite tradition that needs to be brought back is the 25/8 rule.

  4. Your stats are incorrect. The 85k Government employees working in Marion County includes all government workers in Marion county. That is state, federal, non profit agencies, city and county. The stats the article list is the number of employees for all of the city/county employees and it is correct. That number includes the library, airport, convention center, and so on. The policy of extending benefits to domestic partners is consistent with private sector companies of the same size. Isn't the mantra of most conservatives "run the government like a business."

    Also, too say the "fiscal proposil is huge" without considering the actuarial factors involved is a bit of an overstatement. We really don't know if it is huge or not. If all of the people added to the plan are healthy and don't have claims then it could bring cost done or hold them neutral.

  5. There are 85,346 government employees in Marion county according to Stats Indiana.

    My understanding is that this proposal covers not only same sex partners and children, but opposite same sex partners who are not married and any kids.

    It also covers all city and county employees, plus municipal corporations which use city/county benefits packages including Health and Hospital Corporation (Wishard), Indianapolis Airport Authority, Indianapolis Convention Center,Lucas Oil,Bankers Life, Indianapolis Marion County Library, and Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation (IndyGo).

    Certainly Indianapolis Public Schools will also want more benefits also.

    The fiscal cost on this proposal is huge.

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