THIENEMAN ANSWERS HEINER PLAN

Hal Heiner put out his economic plan for Louisville yesterday and it did not take long for the Chris Tieneman campaign to respond. While there will be some for or against this statement there are some points in it. Hale Heiner indeed does have his business in Indiana and employs approximately 1000 people. Is that important when running for Mayor of Louisville and trying to tell folks you will create jobs here?

You can read the Thieneman response below:

February 1, 2010

Louisville, KY. Statement from Chris Thieneman:

“On September 15, 2009, when Mr. Heiner announced he was running for mayor, he said that he had experience in job attraction and when it came to jobs ‘[He] knew who to call.’ For the period of 2000-2008, Louisville lost more than 2,200 jobs. In that same time, Mr. Heiner recruited Louisville companies, and close to 1,000 jobs, to fill space in his Jeffersonville industrial park. Roughly 45% of the net jobs lost can be attributed to Heiner’s actions in sending companies to Southern Indiana, padding the pocket book of Mr. Heiner’s company.

Mr. Heiner built the industrial park. That is like me taking credit for every person who lives in a home built by my company or business that has space in one of the commercial lots I’ve built. Credit should go to the local business owner and entrepreneurs whose companies provide the jobs.

Mr. Heiner has spent 8 years on the Metro Council. As jobs were being leached from the community, he provided no solution to replace the depleting job market. If he knew who to call, he should have picked up the phone in 2006 or 2007 or 2008. Heiner took these jobs to Indiana even while the city of Louisville was trying to keep the jobs here. While on the council, he did not provide innovative solutions to solve the city’s worsening job situation, or offer to change the tax code to make Louisville more business friendly to local businesses and companies looking to relocate.

With his record on the Metro Council and the actions of his company, we should be worried as to where the jobs will be attracted. We need jobs in Louisville. We need to put the people who live in Jefferson County to work. Mr. Heiner cannot talk about a stellar job attraction record to Louisville when he sent Louisville jobs to Indiana.

We need a mayor who puts Louisville first. Mr. Heiner is a nice guy, but having been on the Metro Council these 8 years, and with the current climate, he has been part of the problem. That is especially true of taking Louisville jobs to Indiana for profit.”

Your thoughts?