Industrial Revenue Bonds Revisited

The $700 billion requested to avoid a major financial meltdown amounts to $2,295 for each of 305 million Americans.

This financial crisis presents an opportunity to revisit the $26 billion given by Sandoval County to Intel as industrial revenue bonds (IRBs).

The proposed federal bail-out is intended to rescue major financial institutions from the verge of bankruptcy, whereas the $26 billion IRBs were given to one of our strongest and wealthiest corporations.

The $26 billion gift to Intel amounts to more than $245,000 for each of the estimated 102,120 residents of Sandoval County; more than 110 times higher than the $2,295 per-person cost of the proposed federal bail-out!

Because Sandoval County Commissioners attached no condittions to their most recent $16 billion IRB, Intel has spent $4 billion on a new plant in Arizona, and has committed to build additional multi-billion dollar plants in China and India.

Meanwhile, in New Mexico, Intel has cut its Rio Rancho workforce in half, while refusing to raise its exhaust stacks to the height recommended by numerous experts and Intel's own Community Working Group. Intel's lower stacks will continue to subject nearby residents to excessive levels of toxic emissions.

We allhope the federal government gets a better return on its investment than we've received from Intel.

However, on a per capita basis, the $700 billion federal bail-out is chicken feed compared to the deal Intel foisted on Sandoval County.

Fred Marsh
Corrales Residents for Clean Air and Water