Tucson Offers Incentives for Hughes’ Move
A package of incentives and information put together by local business and political leaders has been presented to Hughes Aircraft Co. officials in an attempt to entice the company to consolidate the operations of its Missile Systems Group in Tucson.
The community proposal includes $4 million in road improvements and academic assistance by the University of Arizona.
It was presented Wednesday by Mayor Tom Volgy, UA President Henry Koffler and Pima County Supervisors Chairman Sam Lena.
Calling it a “communitywide effort,” Volgy said the 3-inch-thick binder included information on Tucson intended for transferring Hughes’ employees from its Canoga Park plant in Los Angeles.
Hughes announced last month that it was considering consolidating its Missile Systems Group operations here.
Task Force Formed
Resistance to the consolidation move is rampant in California. Some of the 3,251 employees at the Canoga Park facility are wearing buttons showing a blazing sun baking a skeleton with a raised martini glass, a cactus, a circling vulture and a rattlesnake--all overlaid by the universal “no” symbol of the circle and slash.
About three weeks ago, Hughes’ management contacted between 25 and 30 businesses and community leaders seeking help. Subsequently, a task force was formed that included Volgy, the Tucson Economic Development Corp., the Tucson Local Development Corp., the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, the Tucson Unified School District and the Tucson Airport Authority.
Sources involved in the move are estimating that it would cost about $150 million. Not all Hughes’ California employees would be transferred.
About 1,200 to 1,800 of the Canoga Park employees would be transferred here and between 800 and 1,000 additional people will be employed from Tucson. The net result would be a reduction in the total Hughes Missile Systems Group work force by as much as 1,200, not including 600 people laid off at the Tucson plant last week. Canoga Park houses research and development, as well as administration. The missiles are produced in Tucson.
Among the incentives offered to Hughes by the task force are that the Arizona Department of Transportation will spend about $3.9 million to improve the Hughes Access Road; that $1 million in resources will be committed over the next 24 months for transferred Hughes employees spouses’ and new employees hired in Tucson, and that UA will have joint UA-Hughes research projects and will allow Hughes to use UA research facilities and staff.
