Anderson mayor says trip to Israel is to lure investment dollars

By KEN de la BASTIDE, Herald Bulletin

For the second time in four months, Anderson Mayor Kevin Smith and Greg Winkler, the city’s business development consultant, are traveling overseas in an effort to lure investment dollars.

In August, Smith and Winkler traveled with a state delegation to Japan. Seventeen local companies donated the approximately $15,000 cost of the trip.

Other people traveling next month to Israel include representatives from the Columbus Chamber of Commerce and the Indiana Economic Development Corp. Winkler and Smith are invited to visit with executives at Taditel Co.

Taditel has a research and development facility in Anderson. The company makes high-end electrical regulators and rectifiers that are sold in the automotive aftermarket.

The company originally started as a telephone company in Israel and then branched out to electrical components.

Smith said the trip is a direct outgrowth of city economic development representatives meeting with local business and learning more about their parent companies, suppliers and consumers.

“It is our belief that we can build those component assembling here in Anderson,” Smith said. “They would have reduced transportation costs by moving to the United States.”

There will also be meeting with the parent company for HDP products.

“We want to expose people to the city,” Smith said. “Our labor pool and location are our two biggest assets.”

How the trip will be paid for has not been determined, but Smith said food and beverage tax revenues is a possibility.

“That would be a proper use for those funds,” he said.

Winkler said Friday that the trip is tentatively planned for Nov. 7-12.

“The reason we are going is we were invited by Taditel to make a presentation to 40 or 50 companies that are considering expansion in the Midwest,” Winkler said.

Winkler said Taditel is talking about a manufacturing facility somewhere in the Midwest.

“We want to keep it in Anderson,” he said.

Winkler said he will tell the companies that it makes sense to invest in Indiana and provide specifics on the advantages of locating in Anderson.

Two of the advantages are the Community Revitalization Enhancement District (CRED), which provides tax credits for creating jobs, and the federal new market tax credits that benefit financiers.

“If we don’t do this, we have no chance of bringing these companies to Anderson,” Winkler said. “It is logical; we have an invitation from a company that is already located in Anderson.”

@ 2005 The Herald Bulletin.