Concerned Citizens

for Clean Water

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A Pretty Cheesy Deal . . . (Posted 3/8/04)
The Southwest Cheese Company Plant soon to be built in Clovis, New Mexico, is an unfolding example of a very sad story that is sure to teach the residents of Curry and Roosevelt Counties some tough lessons that other regions have already learned.
We live in a desert community whose only water supply is an underground aquifer, the Ogallala. We receive about 14 inches of rain per year, and our evapotranspiration rate (the rate at which our water evaporates) is a whopping 60 inches a year. Do the math. We're running out of water! Click here to read excerpts from the State Engineer's Report 99-2.
Officials are so desperate that they're actually considering funding a 300-million dollar plus project to pipe 24,0000 acre-feet of water to Clovis from a Lake almost 90 miles away. [More About That Later].
And yet our politicians are saddling us with a water hungry industry: Large, industrialized dairy farm CAFO's (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) that use an astounding amount of water and require massive amounts of feed, most of which will be shipped in from out of state. (So, very little economic development from selling feed). And let's not even talk about the smell!
Now, they have given public money to a private corporation to build, of all things, a CHEESE PLANT that will use a projected 1.2 MILLION GALLONS OF WATER A DAY.
To process milk into cheese.
And this MILK comes from cows that use WATER to make the milk that the CHEESE PLANT will extract.
And we MUST turn this milk into cheese, because we have overproduced so much milk that the government was reduced to buying more than a BILLION dollars of dry milk and storing it in caves in Kansas City.
Oh, and experts say that we will need milk from about 60 dairies to keep the cheese plant busy. Making Cheese. From Milk. From Water. In a desert.
What an incredible waste of our most precious resource, water. And what an incredible farce is being perpetrated against the American taxpayer!
Our politicians sell us on ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.
But the Corporation that owns the Cheese Plant receives the economic development and the community shoulders the financial burden, which inevitably falls on the backs of the taxpayer. Not to mention the environmental catastrophe that it leaves behind.
There are numerous dairy-related disasters on the books: Chino Valley, California; Magic Valley, Idaho; and Erath County, Texas are just a few. Once the population "catches on," the industry moves on. But it looks like some people in Clovis are a little on the slow side.
Let's examine this project as it is unfolding before us:
So, we're building a Cheese Plant in Clovis, New Mexico. Because it will be good ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT for our community, they say. Let's take a closer look:
In July, 2003, Governor Bill Richardson authorized $1.5 million in Capital Outlay Funds (NM TAXPAYER MONEY) for the plant.
On October 21, Senator Jeff Bingaman began the push for $2.4 million to fund improvements for roads into the Cheese Plant (FEDERAL TAXPAYER MONEY).
In November, 2003, the Clovis City Commission reportedly approved of the idea of using $250 million in Industrial Development Bonds for the Cheese Plant.
On November 26, 2003, the City Commission approved a memorandum of understanding with the Cheese plant to help provide wastewater infrastructure for the plant (thereby assuming liability for the waste from the plant). The City will find $8 million to pay for additions to the existing wastewater treatment plant AND will provide $4.5 million (from City Economic Development Funds) for a pretreatment plant at the Cheese Plant. Oh, by the way, this will consume about 60% of our total economic development tax fund at its current rate of return. But wait--there's more! Although we'll be borrowing the $8 million and assuming the liability for this wastewater and all its attendant biological contaminants, the Cheese Plant will pay the financing costs on the $8 million, they say, by paying the city an operation and maintenance fee.
On December 2, 2003, the Curry County Commission agreed to transfer $300,000 from the County's Environmental Fund (COUNTY TAXPAYER MONEY) to the city to help pay for the wastewater treatment system. Meanwhile, our Sheriff's Department is so underfunded that officers are quitting to go to other jobs that will pay a living wage.
In December, 2003 the Clovis City Commission approved $100,000 to help fund road improvements around the Cheese Plant. (CLOVIS TAXPAYER MONEY).
In December, 2003 the Curry County Commission approved $100,000 to help fund road improvements around the Cheese Plant. (COUNTY TAXPAYER MONEY).
And it has been reported that the Cheese Plant will be exempt from property taxes for 30 years!!!
You know the old cliche: "It takes money to make money" But ask yourself two little questions--who pays the money and who makes the money?
Let's see: $16.9 million spent by federal, state, county, and city taxpayers AND a $250 million bond commitment from the City of Clovis, plus no collection of property taxes from the facility for 30 years. It has been reported that the incentive package offered the Cheese Plant was worth about $30 million dollars. JUST WHO IS GETTING THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?
Clovis Mayor David Lansford was quoted in the local paper, stating that the factory would contribute millions to eastern New Mexico: "The bottom line of this whole deal is the fact that it will create jobs not only in the plant, but trucking jobs and other industry-related jobs. It will affect every tier of the economy in Curry County."
Now, let's just take a quick look at the history of the dairy industry and its economic impact on Curry County so far:
The dairies organize themselves into organizations called Cooperatives that are largely tax-exempt. As far as we can tell, this appears to insulate them from paying New Mexico gross receipts tax on their product, milk. The Dairy Producers of New Mexico claims one of its successes was "to get a bill passed in the New Mexico Legislature that corrected a 'misunderstanding' in the state’s tax code. According to [Lobbyist Sharon] Lombardi, the state wanted to tax producers on their raw milk production as milk left the dairy farm. While raw milk is exempt from taxation, a loophole in state law would have allowed milk to be taxed once it left the farm. The new law closed that loophole."
They don't appear to be paying many road taxes. All their tanker trucks appear to be licensed through Milk Transport Services and/or Dairy Farmers of America. MISSOURI gets the road taxes. Take a good look at their license plates, the next time you're behind a "New Mexico" Milk Tanker truck tearing up the highway between Dallas and Clovis. So our county taxpayers give them $100,000, our city taxpayers give them another $100,000 and our federal taxpayers may give them $2.4 million. What a deal!
Crime is going through the roof. As of the first week of March, 2004, Clovis has had 3 murders. According to FBI statistics, there were 4 murders in Clovis in the entire year of 2001. And even at 2001 crime rates, Clovis New Mexico's Crime Rate is now TWICE THE NATIONAL AVERAGE per capita on MURDER, FORCIBLE RAPE, and BURGLARY and more than THREE TIMES THE NATIONAL AVERAGE on AGGRAVATED ASSAULT. Our jail is overflowing, and we are paying Texas to house our prisoners. So Texas does get some economic development, after all--New Mexico taxpayer money.
Southwest Cheese Company's "ownership" is comprised of a 50% share to an Irish company, Glanbia, with the balance primarily owned by Dairy Farmers of America and Select Milk Producers, Inc.
Research shows that Glanbia, the largest liquid milk processor in Ireland, was named by RTE (Radio Telefís Éireann--the Irish Public Service Broadcasting Organization) as the driving force behind a price-fixing cartel alleged to have pocketed millions at the expense of consumers. (Glanbia eventually settled those charges with the Irish High Court by agreeing to comply with the terms of the 2002 Competition Act).
AND A FOOTNOTE ABOUT THE INCREDIBLE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES THIS PROJECT OFFERS NEW MEXICO: Where's the Beef?
In its article, Out-of-State Firms Squeeze Locals Out of Cheese Plant Construction, the New Mexico Business Weekly reports:
"The $200 million cheddar cheese plant that will be built near Clovis is the largest private building project to come to New Mexico since Intel Corp's recent $2 billion expansion, and New Mexico construction and engineering firms wanted in on the job. But Glanbia Foods Inc., the Ireland-based company that will operate the plant, has already chosen its architectural and engineering firms, as well as its equipment supplier. Power Engineers of Hailey, Idaho, and E.A. Bonelli & Associates of Oakland, Calif., are the architectural and engineering firms, while the Dahlgren Group of Seattle and the Carlisle Group from Minnesota, will round out the construction and the equipment vendor side of the project, says Glanbia spokesman Jeff Williams."
Hmmmmmm......
And do you know who will fill the management jobs? Let's take a stab at that one: people from Idaho and Ireland? And who lives with the smell and the water pollution? NEW MEXICANS!!!!
Anybody know any politicians in Eastern New Mexico who know how to use a calculator? This looks like a great Economic Development Package for Southwest Cheese and a pretty cheesy deal for the citizens of Curry and Roosevelt Counties in New Mexico.
Copyright 2002-2006 Concerned Citizens for Clean Water, 7025 Sparrow Point, Fort Worth, Texas 76133. Phone: (817)346-7122. Email: citizens@saveourwatersupply.org.