Mayor, City Council urge automaker bailout

LIMA - Three million jobs, including many, many in this region, are at stake.

That is the reason City Council on Monday urged a reluctant Congress to immediately pass a $25 billion loan for the nation's auto industry. The move appears to have enough support in the Senate, but not with House Republicans.

The city's resolution, supported unanimously, will be delivered today to U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, and others. It is designed to press the dire circumstances with those who are not supporting the move, Mayor David Berger said.

"This is not a grant. This is not a bailout. This is a bridge loan. These companies cannot borrow. It is dried up. They are facing the same crisis of the banks that would not lend to one another. Imagine the Lima Engine Plant disappearing, Tower Automotive disappearing, Dana going away," Berger said. "It would be unfortunate if any legislator in Ohio [or other auto industry states] played a role in defeating this. We would be looking at decades of devastation."

Council, on behalf of the city's residents, needed to speak up, council President John Nixon said.

"There are people in Lima, Ohio, who have very deep concerns about the future of the industry, the country and our own vitality," Nixon said.

Meanwhile, as Democrats clashed with the White House and congressional Republicans on if and how to assist the ailing auto industry, Ohio's senators are more or less in agreement about trying to keep the Big Three afloat.

Both Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and Republican Sen. George Voinovich support drawing from the $700 billion economic stimulus package passed in September, representatives from each senator's office said Monday.

Voinovich is one of only two Republican senators who have came out in support of the deal. The other is Missouri Sen. Kit Bond.

Voinovich spokesman Chris Paulitz said though one of the arguments against using a portion of the $700 billion has been the potential impact of broadening the scope of what was to be a Wall Street bailout, the auto industry is unlike any other.

"Too many people's lives depend on it," Paulitz said. "Our economy depends on it."

He said GM alone employs 13,000 people in Ohio.

Meghan Dubyak, a spokeswoman for Brown, also said failure in the auto industry would have a devastating impact on Ohio workers.

"The cost of inaction is too high," she said. "The auto industry is related to hundreds of thousands of jobs in Ohio, and throughout the country."

Brown and other Democrats have insisted on provisions to protect taxpayers, including a limit to executive pay.

The White House has argued automakers should be able to use the $25 billion Department of Energy loan they were given earlier this year. That loan was intended to help automakers retool for developing more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Rep. John Boehner, R-West Chester and the house minority leader, also remains opposed to using any of the $700 billion to help the ailing auto industry.

"Spending billions of additional federal tax dollars with no promises to reform the root causes crippling automakers' competitiveness around the world is neither fair to taxpayers nor sound fiscal policy," he said in a Thursday statement.

A spokeswoman of Boehner's said Monday the representative had no further comment on the issue.

Paulitz said Voinovich would also support use of the existing $25 billion loan, however he saw the success of that proposal unlikely.

A spokesperson for Rep. Bob Latta, a Republican from Ohio's 5th district, said the congressman is waiting to hear more from the Senate before making any statements.

Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio's 4th District, could not be reached for comment.