The Detroit City Council is cracking down on Marathon Petroleum, which received a $175-million tax break from the City of Detroit for its mammoth expansion project, but has hired only 15 additional city residents, Joe Guillen reports in the Free Press.
Fewer than 6% of Marathon’s workers at the refinery live in the city, according to the company’s employment records
Guillen writes that when Marathon asked the city for the tax break as part of the company’s plan to expand its operations in southwest Detroit in 2007, officials pledged to recruit Detroiters for new jobs at the refinery.
The City Council granted the company the personal property tax abatement, forgoing millions in tax revenue. Even with the tax break, a city analysis estimated the expansion would generate $181 million in income taxes, real property taxes and other fees for the city over two decades.
“As we discuss job creation, please understand that we will do what we can to hire qualified Detroit residents,” then-Marathon Senior Vice President Garry Peiffer wrote to City Council in 2007. “It is our intention to work closely with the Detroit Workforce Development Department and a local institution of higher education to develop curriculum and offer training for interested Detroit residents.”
“In a city with double-digit unemployment, any company that’s receiving a tax abatement of nearly $180 million should be giving more back, including hiring residents,” Councilwoman Saunteel Jenkins told Guillen.
The company has bought and demolished many of the homes near the refinery, which has long been the source of pollution complaints.
