Government Picking Winners and Losers!
Why do our representatives and local leaders have such an urge to just dole out incentives no matter what? What are the kickbacks coming their way? I am so perplexed by the Lee County EDC. They consistently give, give, give and refuse to hold businesses accountable when they fold up after getting what they want. They need to be accountable. The EDC, that is. Oh, they have asked the city to give them another $10k in next year's budget. After seeing the loads of dough those boys (Donnie Oldham, chairman - see donor doc on the right) spent on atrocious ads at the Herald, I would say they, LEED Brat Pac, have plenty of money to go around. It's just that they want OUR money to play with. Not use their own.
Let's take a look at some past incentive deals:
Ex: Pfizer - Lee Co made a multi year, million plus deal with them. Pfizer moves in, lays off 1200 or so taxpayers, and still gets incentive buyouts. That is, until this year. As much as I fuss with/about our county manager on some things, he halted this one. Pfizer was hit with higher property taxes and no payout this year.
Ex 2: Coty - They were going to expand anyway. Deals are suppose to be made with the intention of the company hiring PERMANENT jobs. Coty just went on a 400 temporary position hiring spree. This does not spur our economy. Who is going to lend money to a temporary worker? Especially in these economic times? No one.
Ex 3: LSA America - Received $80,000 plus - then "jetted off" to another county.
Ex. 4: EDC tries to bring in direct competition to an Steele and Pipe. Allied Crawford promised another round of jobs. The gullible EDC bought this hook line and sinker. This one was halted thanks to the good deeds of citizens joining the employees of Steele and Pipe. Even the City Council wanted a piece of the action. They offered incentives.
Ex. 5: Dell - where do we begin on this one?
Regardless of these examples, we can rest assure in Lee County we have one of the best representatives in Raleigh. He stands by us and for us. Thanks Mike!
Here's the Civitas blog posting:
Another Bubble Waiting to Burst
The bill would provide a 7% tax credit on investments in small businesses after three years and an 8% tax credit each year for four additional years. In other words, the money has to be invested for a minimum of seven years for investors to receive the full amount of the tax credit, which cannot exceed $2 million per investor. Supporters of the bill call it a good plan because the state would only be giving $40 million of tax credit for every $500 million invested. What’s another $40 million anyway?
The bill, which was approved and will now be sent to the Finance Committee, was criticized in the meeting by Rep. Mike Stone (R-Harnet, Lee), who expressed concerns that the tax breaks would encourage bad investments. Rep. Stone also asked about the bankruptcy of a Chicago business, Protein Solutions, a meat-packing company that went bankrupt after receiveing tax credits from an Illinois statute identical to the one being proposed here.
Read all of Civitas' Opinion here: http://www.civitasreview.com/economics/another-bubble-waiting-to-burst/
Why do our representatives and local leaders have such an urge to just dole out incentives no matter what? What are the kickbacks coming their way? I am so perplexed by the Lee County EDC. They consistently give, give, give and refuse to hold businesses accountable when they fold up after getting what they want. They need to be accountable. The EDC, that is. Oh, they have asked the city to give them another $10k in next year's budget. After seeing the loads of dough those boys (Donnie Oldham, chairman - see donor doc on the right) spent on atrocious ads at the Herald, I would say they, LEED Brat Pac, have plenty of money to go around. It's just that they want OUR money to play with. Not use their own.
Let's take a look at some past incentive deals:
Ex: Pfizer - Lee Co made a multi year, million plus deal with them. Pfizer moves in, lays off 1200 or so taxpayers, and still gets incentive buyouts. That is, until this year. As much as I fuss with/about our county manager on some things, he halted this one. Pfizer was hit with higher property taxes and no payout this year.
Ex 2: Coty - They were going to expand anyway. Deals are suppose to be made with the intention of the company hiring PERMANENT jobs. Coty just went on a 400 temporary position hiring spree. This does not spur our economy. Who is going to lend money to a temporary worker? Especially in these economic times? No one.
Ex 3: LSA America - Received $80,000 plus - then "jetted off" to another county.
Ex. 4: EDC tries to bring in direct competition to an Steele and Pipe. Allied Crawford promised another round of jobs. The gullible EDC bought this hook line and sinker. This one was halted thanks to the good deeds of citizens joining the employees of Steele and Pipe. Even the City Council wanted a piece of the action. They offered incentives.
Ex. 5: Dell - where do we begin on this one?
Regardless of these examples, we can rest assure in Lee County we have one of the best representatives in Raleigh. He stands by us and for us. Thanks Mike!
Here's the Civitas blog posting:
Another Bubble Waiting to Burst
Despite Rep. Tom Murry’s (R-Wake) open acknowledgement of Civitas’s Bad Bill of the Week article about HB 1149 (New Market Jobs Act), he turned a blind eye to reason and espoused the bill’s virtues in a Commerce and Job Development House committee meeting earlier today.
The bill would provide a 7% tax credit on investments in small businesses after three years and an 8% tax credit each year for four additional years. In other words, the money has to be invested for a minimum of seven years for investors to receive the full amount of the tax credit, which cannot exceed $2 million per investor. Supporters of the bill call it a good plan because the state would only be giving $40 million of tax credit for every $500 million invested. What’s another $40 million anyway?
The bill, which was approved and will now be sent to the Finance Committee, was criticized in the meeting by Rep. Mike Stone (R-Harnet, Lee), who expressed concerns that the tax breaks would encourage bad investments. Rep. Stone also asked about the bankruptcy of a Chicago business, Protein Solutions, a meat-packing company that went bankrupt after receiveing tax credits from an Illinois statute identical to the one being proposed here.
Read all of Civitas' Opinion here: http://www.civitasreview.com/economics/another-bubble-waiting-to-burst/
2 comments:
Donnie gave funds to Stone's re-election campaign, but I bet he still gave more to Mushmouth Tatum.
Milk the goats while you can.
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