Gary council gives fabricator abatement, demands local hires

A steel fabricating company wants to expand its Gary plant, saying it will create more jobs in the city.

But when Common Council officials learned Tuesday that only 16 of the company’s existing 103 employees live in Gary, they became concerned. Council President Ronald Brewer said the tax abatement will only go through if the 10 new employees hired by T&B Tube Co. Inc. are all Gary residents.

In fact, Brewer also threw in a provision for the tax abatement agreement, saying that the deal will be reviewed in six months — with the abatement potentially repealed if T&B falls short of complying. That measure got a 7-1 council vote, with council member Rebecca Wyatt, D-1st, voting “no” and council member Michael “Coach” Protho, D-2nd, absent.

“They have to hire 10 Gary residents, and they have to maintain those jobs for Gary residents,” Brewer said.

The abatement would allow T&B to receive a tax break on the cost of personal property investments such as machinery and equipment that are installed during the next year’s planned expansion. The tax break is capped at $5,220,626.

T&B has existed in Gary since 2015 at 4000 E. 7th Ave. when it spent some $12.6 million to develop a plant that employed some 41 people. More employees have been added on since then to the current total of 103, with plans for the new expansion requiring 10 more hires.

Officials say they’re already looking to hire for three of the new spots, with seven more jobs likely to be created this year. They also say their jobs pay average salaries of $18.59 per hour.

Wyatt said she thinks T&B has been beneficial to both Gary at large and her district, in which the company is located.

“They took an abandoned area and cleaned it up, while adding more and more jobs,” she said.

Wyatt also said, “giving a tax abatement to entice them to come here is the price you sometimes have to pay.”

But Brewer said he thinks it “terrible” that so few of the existing employees are Gary residents. “I appreciate their investment (in Gary), but it’s not just about that,” he said.

Council members Herb Smith, D-at large, and Carolyn Rogers, D-4th, said they had concerns and thought about voting “no” but were swayed by Brewer’s demand for all 10 new jobs having to go to Gary residents.

Whether that demand is viable remains to be seen. President Jack Jones said the company prefers Gary residents who have less of a commute to get to work, but said the company puts its hires through an initial sixmonth training period that many would-be workers do not pass.

“I’m not sure this is enforceable,” Jones said of the city’s hiring demand, claiming he can’t guarantee all 10 Gary-based hires would be retained.

But Brewer said that the company will have to figure out a way to comply. “If they want to receive our tax abatement, they’re going to have to hire our people.”

Jones said the company will try to comply. “We prefer to hire Gary people, and we understand this is important to the city,” he said.