A taxpayer group is raising questions about tax breaks for GE Power’s Alstom plant in Chattanooga, where an auction to sell millions of dollars of equipment is set this week as manufacturing at the factory shuts down.
While the online auction is slated for Wednesday and Thursday, the Accountability for Taxpayer Money (ATM) group is asking if equipment already has been assigned back to GE after Chattanooga and Hamilton County took title when the tax breaks were granted in 2008.
Also, the group is questioning if the city and county are using the re-conveyance of the equipment and the property back to GE as “a bargaining chip” in negotiations with the company.
“When Dell left North Carolina ‘prematurely’ a few years ago, the media reported that the company agreed to give back about $26 million in subsidies,” said ATM founder Helen Burns Sharp.
City Attorney Wade Hinton didn’t return phone calls seeking comment. He previously said there were negotiations with the company about resolving “outstanding obligations” related to the tax breaks.