A mere nine months ago, I pointed out that the city of Irving handed out $75,000 in “incentives” to Kelly-Moore paint company in return for “promises” of up to 30 jobs at $100,000 each:

Irving City Council Gives $75,000 Economic Incentive To Kelly -Moore Paint Co. [April 23, 2023]

Well, here we are only nine months later and we get this:

Out of Business: Kelly-Moore Paints

CEO describes abrupt shut down of the business

It’s the end of the road for Kelly-Moore Paints, the West Coast paint giant that enjoyed a nearly 80-year run.

Unable to pay creditors and running out of money and unable to find investors to carry on its colorful tradition, Kelly Moore Paints furloughed approximately 700 employees across the company’s locations, as well as put a halt at its manufacturing facility.

All 157 of its company-managed stores in California, Nevada, Oklahoma and Texas were shuttered early this month.  

You see, all the money is handed out by the cities UP FRONT in return for future promises from what may very well be a slimy owner or CEO. Kind of like Eco-Turd’s Mike Cour tried to do to our own LEDC three or four years ago.

The companies seeking handouts will almost ALWAYS get the upper hand on the economic development clowns for a few reasons:

1 – The economic development clowns have generally NEVER run a business (Misti Talbert) and many have never (or barely) even worked in the private sector (Stacey Ybarra, Ryan Ward, Finley deGraffenreid). They are like lambs to the slaughter against a cut-throat owner of a business.

2 – The information about the business will always be asymmetrical. That is, the owners and CEOs have a MUCH better knowledge of the businesses prospects going forward than the economic development clowns will ever have.

I’d bet a shiny new dime that Kelly-Moore Paints CEO Charles Gassenheimer knew damn good and well last April that Kelly-Moore was on very shaky ground. But why not just grab the $75,000 and see what happens? There is ZERO risk in him taking the money. ALL the risk fell on the taxpayers – and they just got fucked.

Mark my words: the EXACT same thing will happen to our very own LEDC one of these days. They are so desperate to make a deal – ANY deal – that it’s virtually guaranteed they will get the shit end of any sticks.