President Obama visited in 2009 and made a nice speech. Taxpayers ponied up 17 million in stimulus tax credits to a Swedish electric car company a questionable track record. The result is a mostly empty warehouse and two jobs. Way to go President Obama.
Via CBS News:
As incentive, the federal government offered Think City $17 million in stimulus tax credits.
Dorinda Heiden-Guss heads up the local economic development effort. "We were excited," she said. "We were invigorated at a very devastating time."
But it turns out the company had a checkered track record, including three previous bankruptcies. We recently visited Think City's Indiana plant, and here's what we found: a largely empty warehouse.
Everybody hoped that by this time there would be more than 400 workers inside a bustling plant. Instead, today, there are just two workers at Think City. Rodney and Josh are slowly finishing assembly on a few dozen 2011 models shipped in from Norway.
We were able to drive a Think City car around the empty space where investors once envisioned an assembly line churning out 20,000 vehicles a year.
Now in its fourth bankruptcy, Think Global has been bought by a Russian investor who didn't return our calls.
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