City officials believe Navistar’s test track in southeast Fort Wayne is key to keeping a company presence in the city. Courtesy Allen County GIS
Navistar’s estimates of Navistar’s economic value to the area:
•Direct payroll:
$111.8 million•Indirect payroll:
$53.3 million•State tax revenue:
$9.3 million•County tax revenue:
$1.4 million
Sources: Allen County Department of Planning Services, IPFW Community Research Institute
Mayor Tom Henry has two good reasons to continue to court Navistar International, even after being spurned. One is purely pragmatic; the other, a symbolic message that has practical implications.
•No. 1: Fort Wayne has something Navistar presumably needs that Lisle, Ill., neither has nor most likely ever will.
•No. 2: The city needs to fight for jobs, particularly in this economy. That fight is important to keep whatever pieces of Navistar the city can for as long as it can as well as let potential employers know that the city will fight for business and jobs.
Navistar has made it clear it wants to consolidate headquarters and engineering, and that won’t happen in Fort Wayne. Last week, Navistar told Henry it will phase down local operations over the next two to three years, a message it gave no other city.
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