More than two months after Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the legislatively-approved state budget proposal, he continues to hypocritically hand out targeted tax cuts and subsidies to favored corporations.
At the time of his budget veto, Cooper said:
This is a bad budget with the wrong priorities. We should be investing in public schools, teacher pay and health care instead of more tax breaks for corporations.
His words indicate that he is against tax breaks for corporations. His actions, of course, tell a different story.
At the end of July, Civitas President Donald Bryson pointed out how Cooper’s office was handing out targeted corporate tax breaks at a pace of $1.2 million per day.
Cooper has continued to be quite busy with the corporate tax breaks he pretends to be opposed to.
In the last two weeks, his office has announced:
- $200k for a clothing manufacturer in McDowell Co.
- $1.2 million for a car buying and selling e-commerce company in Cabarrus Co.
- $5 million for an online insurance platform in Durham Co.
- $760k to a transportation service company in Nash Co.
- $200k to a manufacturer in Richmond Co.
- $940k for a manufacturer in Halifax Co.
If Cooper brags about the job growth created by these tax breaks, he recognizes that tax cuts incentivize investment and job creation.
So why does he claim to be so hostile against “tax breaks for corporations”?
The fact is that Cooper isn’t against tax breaks for corporations, he’s only against across-the-board tax cuts for all businesses. Cooper instead prefers the crony system in which he can select favored corporations to grant tax breaks to so that he can issue press releases and attend ribbon-cutting ceremonies.
Cooper is placing his personal PR gains and cronyism above good economic policy that would benefit more struggling North Carolinians.
