WRAL.com today launched an investigative series examining the use of economic incentives (i.e. corporate welfare) in NC. Of note in the article is the proliferation of government handouts not only in NC but nationwide.
Although not all these performance-based grants will fully pay out, the legislature’s fiscal research division says the state has committed to paying out nearly $800 million through 2027.
And across the country, according to a 2012 New York Times investigation, state and local municipalities pay out more than $80 billion annually for incentive programs.
Unsurprisingly, yet still disappointingly, defenders of the crony capitalist schemes display economic ignorance to justify the greater concentration of economic control into the hands of the political class:
“If you want to be in the recruiting game today, incentives are part of the deal. If you don’t have incentives, you are going to lose opportunities,” Norris Tolson, who served as the state’s commerce secretary in 1997, said. “Some of the opportunities you lose you may not even know about.”
Leave a Comment