The News & Record, in an unlinked article, reports that the North Carolina Metropolitan Coalition, chaired by Greensboro's Mayor Holiday met yesterday. This group is comprised of leaders from 21 of North Carolina's largest cities. While much was probably on their agenda, the most important topic of the day was attracting jobs to the state... as it should be.
Taxpayer supported economic incentives as a tool for attracting companies to the area where at the top of their list for discussion apparently.
As I have said before, economic incentives are a necessary evil. Companies know that incentives are available and increasingly holding relocation or expansion plans hostage to extract concessions from governments. We have no choice but to play in this arena.
So let us define the rules by which we will play. We need to go into the game stating that we certainly have money available for incentives, but our money carries some with it some rules that must be followed.
I propose that Greensboro adopt a set of Economic Incentive Guidelines that will protect the taxpayers interest in all future incentive negotiations. This set of guidelines lays out our rules of engagement and makes incentive money available to large and small businesses equitably. These guidlines recognize that most of our future job growth will come from smaller concerns and directs a sizable portion the City's incentive efforts toward that reality.
Comments?
9:53:48 AM 
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