Activists Decry Corporate Tax Breaks

Members of the activist group Cambridge Citizens for Liveable Neighborhoods (CCLN) blasted city councillors this week for their support of a package of incentives developed to keep Lotus Development Corp. in Cambridge.

At a meeting on Monday, the City Council discussed offering a tax break to Lotus to convince the computer company to move its headquarters to a new structure in Kendall Square. Lotus, which has its headquarters in Cambridge, is considering relocating to a city with more affordable land.

CCLN members called the proposed tax break "absurd" in interviews yesterday, claiming that Lotus needs no help from the city. Debra M. McManus, a board member of CCLN, said that the incentives would renege on a long-standing promise to use the proposed Kendall Square area for housing.

"They'll be no space left in Kendall Square for housing that's been promised to the community for 15 years," MacManus said.

But city councillors said yesterday that without the incentives, which will after zoning requirements and ease the tax burden for Lotus, the computer software giant will leave Cambridge.

Councillor Alice K. Wolf said that she supports the incentive because she doesn't think the housing that the area is zoned for would be completed anytime soon.

"I'd prefer [the space be used for] light manufacturing or housing, too, but that's not in the cards," Wolf said, adding that the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority, which would oversee the construction of the housing, "should work harder" to get the housing built.

Under the proposed tax break, Lotus would pay the lowest property taxes of any business in Cambridge, according to CCLN president Daniel E. Geer.

Wolf said the incentive was necessary to retain a valuable corporate resource in the city.

"Cambridge is competing with other areas for retaining [Lotus] as corporate citizens," Wolf said. "In this economy it's important to us to keep them as a large employer."

But CCLN members called this reasoning specious, claiming that Lotus has already moved about half of its employees out of the city, including all of its customer service workers and half of its employees in manufacturing.

"Those are the kinds of jobs we'll want in the city--blue collar jobs," MacManus said.

"Do we want to retain the top brass while all the real jobs are already gone?" Geer added. The city council supports the move out of political cowardliness, Geer said.

"The city council is fearful of hav- ing someone point the letter at them saying,'You drove Lotus out,"' Geer said. "I don't thinkthe city council is retrievable on this."

The council will vote on the issue when itmeets again in September

The council will vote on the issue when itmeets again in September