WASHINGTON – The Obama administration Tuesday proposed a trust fund of more than $800 million to pay for the cleanup of closed General Motors sites in 14 states.

President Obama, speaking in Youngstown, Ohio, which is near a GM assembly plant, called the trust a “landmark agreement to help dozens of communities like Youngstown revitalize and redevelop old, shuttered GM facilities, preparing them for new industries, new jobs and new opportunity.”

Ed Montgomery, who leads the White House Council on Automotive Communities and Workers, said the fund would clean up nearly 90 properties shuttered in the GM bankruptcy.

The cleanup plan will help raze or rehabilitate dozens of vacant factories and offices left barren by GM’s government-led bankruptcy last year. Montgomery announced the cleanup at a conference on the future of automotive communities affected by the industry’s downsizing.

GM received $50 billion in government aid to get through its bankruptcy. GM has repaid $6.7 billion that the government considered loans, with the remaining $43.3 billion converted to a 61 percent stake in the automaker.

The funding for the trust fund comes from $1.2 billion provided by the Treasury Department to wind down the “bad” assets of GM set aside in its bankruptcy.

 


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