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 is the best location for the financial services firm’s new data center, will not pursue any local or state incentives as part of the project.
So good for American Express that didn’t need to be bribed to locate here, but there is another lesson in this. One of the major reasons NC has seen a number of data centers located in NC (Google, Apple, Amex, IBM, etc) is that the tax on electricity is lower than in other states. Hence, if NC’s other tax rates (sales, income, corporate, etc.) were competitive or lower than other states, think what other growth could be occurring.
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