Civitas Institute Budget and Tax analyst Brian Balfour discusses new state budget http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iayzbs-rwfw
- May21
Good for Amex
It warmed my heart a bit to read in the N&O this morning that Amex was deciding to build a data center in Greensboro. Not only because our state could use some jobs, but because they decided to not seek any state or local incentives to do so. American Express, which has determined that Greensboro [...]
- Apr19
Corporate Welfare/Incentives Update
In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the latest edition of how your state and local government continue to contribute to unemployment. Notice the use of the phrase “could employ up to 150″ for $6 million. From our friends over at the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law. $6,000,000 in incentives is being sought by [...]
- Apr16
Unemployment Continues As Do Tax Policies
Unemployment continues its relentless march in North Carolina. The latest numbers continue to show the rate still above 11%. The blame game will most likely continue, but it should be readily apparent that NOTHING the state government is doing has worked in any way. Thinking politicians should be open to other (I would say newer, [...]
- Apr05
More On Wasteful Incentives
From our good friends over at the NC Institute for Constitutional Law: $4,000,000 in potential incentives has been granted to Hewitt Associates, Inc. from the state’s Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG). The Illinois-Based consulting firm will be expanding its leased operations by adding up to 500 jobs at University Research Park in north Charlotte. So far, [...]
- 2Mar31
Will The Good Year Raid Affect Their Incentives?
After months of undercover work, 14 employees at the Goodyear plant got busted for various drug related activity. That’s 14 additional employees that probably won’t have jobs. Since last August, undercover narcotics agents have been able to purchase marijuana, cocaine and numerous prescription drugs from employees inside the Ramsey Street plant, investigators said. The unions [...]
- Mar29
More Incentives, Government Wasting More Tax Dollars
Taxes continue to rise even after ten years of being told that incentives would in fact lower taxes by expanding the tax base. That lie didn’t work, so they simply stopped saying it and started the “it’s about creating jobs” even though most incentives end up going to companies that lay off people or go [...]
- Mar26
Unemployment Hits New High (Low), Had Enough?
Unemployment set a new record of 11.2% in NC in February. Eight years w/Easley and the highly corruptible legislature has left us with wasted incentive expenditures, massive debt, high taxes and no end in sight. Oh, and we have the job(less) governor at the helm who can’t seem to keep even her campaign flight records [...]
- Mar23
The “Incentive” Band Plays On. .
Healthcare rhetoric may have dominated the news cycles, but that hasn’t slowed down the pace of taxpayer funded giveaways. Here’s the latest from NCICL: 200,000 in incentives is being sought by Tri Vantage from the Alamance County and the City of Mebane. Tri Vantage, a division of Glen Raven Inc. of Burlington, is an international supplier of specialty [...]
- Mar15
Paying For Jobs
Nary a day passes that legislators or local officials don’t find a way to say that it’s government’s job to create jobs. The lack of free-market understanding and lack of a principled approach to job creation is staggering. The most recent and ludicrous example was highlighted today by the good folks over at the NC [...]
- Mar12
NC Used Once Again
Since most companies know our state’s leadership are a bunch of suckers for incentive packages and will throw taxpayer money around chasing the elusive score, North Carolina has once again been used as the rabbit to run up the incentive package for another state — this time, Radio Shack has made NC its tease. RadioShack, [...]
- 4Feb23
Your Tax Dollars at Work
Pretty neat video of 58 million of your tax dollars hard at work. Some aerial footage of the new data center being built by Apple in Catawba County. I’m still waiting for all the greeny environmentalists to put down their iPhones or iPads long enough to notice the number of poor defenseless trees who gave [...]
- Feb09
Corporate Welfare Update
From our good friends over at the NC Institute for Constitutional Law. More taxpayer giveaways: $107,170 in tax incentives grants was approved on Monday, February 1, by the Statesville City Council for an unnamed furniture company to expand its local operations. ~ Jim McNally, Statesville Record & Landmark, February 4, 2010 $100,000 to Commonwealth Brands Inc. [...]
- Feb01
Slippery Roads and Slick Tire Deals
Ok, so I’m havin’ a bit of fun with a title today. Many folks might well recall the from bad to worse tire incentive deal a while back wherein the Governor said that giving $40 million in incentives to Goodyear and Firestone was a bad deal and way to much and then negotiated a $60 [...]
- Jan26
Yet More Incentives. . . And More Jobless. . .
Here’s the latest update from the NC Institute of Constitutional Law on the incentives game that has done NOTHING to help NC’s unemployment rate. $5,560,000 in total possible incentives has been granted to Celgard LLC to expand its Charlotte campus into Concord. The Charlotte-based company develops and produces the specialty membranes used in lithium batteries. The [...]
- Jan20
An Update From NCICL
This is a recent update on the ongoing incentives debacles across our great state from the NC Institute of Constitutional Law. $100,000 in additional incentives has been approved for Innovative Emergency Management (IEM) by commissioners in Durham County on January 11th. The company has also been granted a $150,000grant from the state’s One North Carolina Fund and [...]
- Jan08
State Gives (Another) Tax Break to Warren Buffett
As every person in North Carolina saw their tax bill increase last year, the State of NC was busy granting a tax break to a company owned by the world’s 2nd richest man — Warren Buffett. The Greensboro News & Record today reveals that flight simulator company FlightSafety is expanding operations to Greensboro will receive [...]
- 1Dec16
New Solar Plant Going Online In NC, $$$$$$$
SunEdison, an out of state company, is building a solar energy farm near Lexington, NC. The plant is taking advantage of all sorts of new benefits doled out by the legislature. This story has so many interesting components I’m not entirely sure how to lay it out. 1) A new solar facility that will produce [...]
- Dec08
That Dell You Hear Isn’t A Christmas Bell!
Supporters of the Dell deal in 2004 promised the state taxpayers that they would benefit from the $300 million tax giveaway deal. With Dell’s closing, even Speaker Joe Hackney is still trying to convince the public that the state will at least break even. “The company didn’t get most of the incentives,” said Hackney, D-Orange, [...]
- 2Nov16
Crickets
That’s the only sound you will hear coming out of the left-wingers today as another NC based business decides to expand its operations in our neighbor to the south. According to the AP: A research firm that develops advanced textiles for the automotive, aeronautics and defense industries says it will open a new facility in [...]