Washington, D.C.--The new owner of Stella D’Oro should not be allowed to take machinery bought and upgraded by New York City tax dollars to a plant in Ohio Congressman Eliot Engel, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and Councilman Oliver Koppell said in a letter to the New York City Department of Finance.

The three also said that the City should go to court to stop the move to Ohio until the restoration of the tax money is resolved. “We feel very strongly that New York City tax payer dollars should not be outsourced to Ohio,” the three said in the letter. “Since Stella D’Oro is now being sold to Lance, Inc. with production relocating to Ohio, any and all funds provided over the last several years should be returned to the (New York) taxpayers.” They said that they were informed that these funds were used for the improvement of Stella D’Oro equipment that the current owner, Brynwood Partners, intends to make part of the sale to Lance Inc.

Rep. Engel said, “We should not be sending our jobs and our tax money to Ohio. Brynwood Partners made a coldly calculated decision that they wanted to break the union, and when they lost a National Labor Relations Board decision, they decided to sell out.”

Assemblyman Dinowitz said, “Brynwood's behavior has been a disgrace. They are putting hardworking and loyal employees out of work. Neither they nor anyone else should be rewarded for this bad and outrageous behavior.”

Councilman Koppell said, “This is a bald attempt to break a union and get American workers to bid against each other for the obscene profits of a holding company. We cannot let his happen.”

Brynwood, in selling to Lance, Inc., included the machinery of the Bronx plant, which is to be transported to the Lance plant in Ohio. That machinery was upgraded using tax abatement dollars from New York City. The three elected officials said in their letter, “However, it has come to our attention that New York City is unwilling to implement the ‘claw back’ procedures to recoup tax abatements awarded to Stella D’Oro under the Industrial and Commercial Abatement Program (ICAP), formerly known as the Industrial and Commercial Incentive Program (ICIP).

They said the Department of Finance “should recover these misused taxpayer funds; and request a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the sale of Stella D’Oro and the relocation of the manufacturing equipment, purchased and upgraded by NYC tax payer money, until it can be resolved.”

They also said the Finance Department should inform Lance of the city’s intent to reclaim the machinery and tax abatement money.