(The following editorial appeared on the Capital-Journal website on December 7.)
TOPEKA, Kan. — Topeka received some good news this week; 93 locomotive repair jobs are being transferred here from West Burlington, Iowa.
The move was the result of a 14-month study, which concluded there would be financial advantages to Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway; 89 union workers and four salaried employees will be offered jobs in Topeka, with the average wage of the union jobs at $46,000 a year.
Even so, shop employment in Topeka is less than half of what it was just three years ago, when 650 such jobs were supported here.
Good news for Topeka, of course, is bad news for West Burlington. Those 93 jobs will bring about $4.1 million in payroll to the capital city.
Although both communities offered incentives to lure the jobs here or keep them in Iowa, that didn’t play into BNSF’s final decision: “We did not seek out incentive packages,” spokesman Steve Forsberg said. “Ultimately they were offered, but the irony is, the decision was based on our own internal numbers.”
It appears Topeka shop employees made the case that the work could be done more productively and efficiently in Topeka, but the tax structure in Topeka, larger BNSF real estate holdings here and better development opportunities also played a role, said Doug Kinsinger, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce and Go Topeka.
Forsberg said two locomotive repair shops are no longer needed.
It’s nice to be on the receiving end of good news this time around.