Opinion
Winston-Salem gives over $200k in incentives to HanesBrands… to shrink
Incentives, if used at all, should be a tool for growth, not a safety net for corporations scaling back their operations.
Opinion
New firms drive economic growth
For every high-touted industrial prospect that goes to some other state, keep in mind that many more young, less-famous companies are looking for the right place to launch and begin their growth cycles.
News
N.C. Maintains Low Score in Business-Friendly Rating for Taxes
RALEIGH — The Tax Foundation's annual index is designed to assess the business friendliness of tax policy in each state based on principles of neutrality, simplicity, broad bases, and low rates. North Carolina moved from 46th to 44th last year.
News
Perdue Stands By Incentive-Based Employment Programs
RALEIGH — A linchpin of Perdue’s jobs program is the formation of roughly 90 public/private partnerships, in which private companies agree to relocate or expand in North Carolina in exchange for cash incentives, tax breaks, or some combination.
News
Tax Foundation Ranks N.C. Business Tax Climate 10th Worst in Nation
RALEIGH — North Carolina earns the dubious distinction this week of joining the Tax Foundation’s list of the top 10 states with the worst business tax climates. The John Locke Foundation’s top budget expert places much of the blame on recent sales-tax increases. Voters in 11 counties will decide Nov. 2 whether to raise sales-tax rates even higher.
News
VIDEO: N.C. Seeking Better Ways to Keep Tabs on Incentives
RALEIGH — Members of the General Assembly’s Revenue Laws Study Committee got into a heated discussion about one of the largest incentive deals in North Carolina — the nearly $300 million enticement to Dell. The computer manufacturer claimed a small fraction of the tax credits offered to it, and it has since announced plans to close its plant. It was open for less than 5 years.
Opinion
21st Century Questions
The fight over public school history requirements is tied to a larger effort to place more of the school curriculum in a “contemporary context.”
Opinion
North Carolina’s Phantom Jobs
Targeted government incentive packages have never really been about creating jobs. They are about creating job announcements.
Opinion
The Cult of the Next Big Thing
RALEIGH -- You can call it the Cult of the Next Big Thing, the belief that the key to transforming the economy of most any place is a single, massive project. The economic development equivalent, if you will, of a game-winning grand slam in the bottom of the ninth. And yet, these deals are typically something so simple that they can be reduced to a single word or phrase.
Opinion
What (Economic) Dreams May Come
Contrary to the belief of some, the American Dream has not become the American Fantasy.
Opinion
The Bailout Precedent
We’ve had a preview of how the new American corporatist state would operate, thanks to the proliferation of corporate welfare deals.
News
Sunshine Law Proposed for Incentives
RALEIGH — Businesses that demand state-financed economic perks to move to North Carolina would have to meet new disclosure requirements under a bill introduced in the General Assembly.
