Editorial: Saint-Gobain Spreads Its Wings Into Devens

Saint-Gobain, largely though Norton Co., the Worcester manufacturer it bought more than 20 years ago, has had a long history in the region, and employs about 2,000 at its sites in Worcester, Northborough and Milford. Thus we were pleased to learn of Saint-Gobain's planned expansion into Devens, yet another Central Mass. community that will benefit from its expansion into half of the former Evergreen Solar headquarters. The company plans to invest $31 million at the facility and add 90 jobs to manufacture a component of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In return, the company is getting an assist from the state in the form of $1.7 million in tax breaks, plus tax increment financing (TIF) from Devens.

It's rewarding to see Saint-Gobain's expansion coming in the wake of the Evergreen exit. Yet it's also a credit to the commonwealth, which — according to the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute — has helped turned Devens into a hub of commercial activity that has generated nearly $1.5 billion for the Massachusetts economy just 16 years after the U.S. Army closed its fort there.

The Devens success can be accomplished in other communities as well. But too many times, growth in one community comes at the expense of a neighboring town, producing a net zero regional gain in jobs, and often a reduction in municipal revenues as companies follow the incentives. For example, the recent move by The TJX Cos. to relocate 1,600 employees to its new campus in Marlborough brought the city toe to toe with Framingham, which reacted with alarm at the prospect of losing a business that has long called that town its home. Framingham eventually prevailed in keeping TJX, but at a cost of $6.5 million in tax incentives in return for the addition of 225 jobs. In a climate in which "jobs" have become a primary economic and political issue, businesses have an advantage in their efforts to expand or relocate. New England's long history of "local" control becomes more pronounced when cities and towns work by themselves instead of with each other. Since one community's economic benefits usually spread to others, that kind of heated competition produces few winners, and is a system overdue for review. But to do so, we'd need a radical change in how municipalities fund their annual budgets.

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Business Tax Breaks: Help Vs. Harm

Saint-Gobain Preps For Production In Devens