Top employers in Butler County: Diversity of largest businesses key to success, officials say
Jun. 26āButler County has a diverse collection of major employers that include a mix of education, manufacturing, healthcare and others that safeguard against a potential economic meltdown, even a crippling pandemic.
The paper and steel industries were king in the county in years past, but that's not the case today, which is a good thing according to Development Director
"Economically it's better to have some diversity. We are fairly diversified, we don't have one employer that has half the employees in the county...," Fehr said. "If you look at this list if one of these places closed up shop, yeah we would feel it but it's not catastrophic."
The most recent Butler County Comprehensive Annual Financial Report from 2019 estimated the total income earned by
The county is losing its eighth largest employer this year, as Liberty Mutual is in the process of leaving
"This is a way for us to decrease costs and improve competitiveness by reducing our unused space and maintaining what we need," he said.
Fairfield Assistant Manager
"We've been able to diversify enough where we were able to take the hit and not be, I guess, overly wounded by it," Timmer said about the departure. "Granted we would absolutely have loved it if they'd stayed and stayed at the
Liberty Mutual sold its property on
Timmer said the city won't know the full impact on income tax revenue until new tenants are occupying the development.
On the positive side,
Cities across the county might take a hit to income tax revenues due to work-from-home changes during the coronavirus pandemic. The state approved emergency legislation last year that employees working remotely would still pay income taxes to the community where their employer is located.
The order has expired, but there is pending legislation that would allow workers to get refunds from 2020 and 2021, according to
"If this provision becomes law, the city will be obligated to refund money received in fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2021," Elliott said. "I have estimated the city of
Trenton Finance Director
"The huge increase in working from home has caused mayhem between that traditional rule of law versus the new pandemic work reality," Engle said.
The pandemic also has officials wondering if companies will start relocating because the remote working operation has now been tested, according to
"The pandemic forced people to work from home and the science project lasted long enough employers can see whether it was really effective or not," Vanderhorst said. "This is a nationwide trend it's not just southwest
Some of the largest employers -seven of them -are the governments themselves and school districts on the list of 34 largest employers, which can't relocate.
The four hospitals and 11 manufacturing companies also could not effectively work remotely. Vanderhorst said
"Our economic development team has just really done a great job luring businesses here because the town is just really getting a cool vibe to it," Vanderhorst said. "We have land that we can offer, we have workforce that we can put on the ground for them, we own our own utilities. I think we're going to be fine."
Income tax is not the only benefit of having a good crop of big businesses, Fehr said the bigger companies also have very philanthropic and volunteering cultures.
"Generally the bigger companies are a bit more engaged in the community because they can afford to be...," Fehr said. "Having larger companies they can be a bit more philanthropic and allow some of their employees to be engaged on boards and committees and things like that, that you need. That is a benefit of some of these larger corporations."
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Opening remarks by President von der Leyen at the joint press conference with President Michel and Prime Minister Costa following the meeting of the European Council of 25 June 2021
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