I am not celebrating. When I hear about West Virginia or Georgia getting defense contracts, I say, good for you, you can have them.
I agree we need more manufacturing in Sioux Falls and across the country, but we should be building things that actually improve lives instead of destroying them.
There is also the economic factor. Since these folks are making weapons for the Pentagon the final product won’t even be available for sale on the open market so we will get NO tax revenue from the facility. Besides maybe 100 local jobs, most of the profits will ship directly out of state and never recycle in our community. Plus, once the contract is fullfilled in two years, will the government order more or will they just pack up and leave while laying off those workers?
We are ALSO paying for all of this with our Federal Tax Dollars so the facility is actually COSTING us. This isn’t free market capitalism manufacturing. This is your tax dollars buying WMD’s that kill foreigners, and little else.
I would have loved to been a fly on the wall when city council was told about this privately and their reaction. I’m guessing not all of them were happy about it. I also think GOED and Rhoden pushed this onto us like the prison and local leadership didn’t have much of a choice in the matter or the courage to stop him. Last I checked with Home Rule Charter we decide on our local zoning, so the council could stop this, but they won’t.