HoppForLiberty
01-15-2012, 09:59 PM
In a recent decision by a 4-1 margin The Alamance County Commissioners voted to approve giving $55,000 of taxpayer money to a private company. They will also be seeking taxpayer money from the City of Burlington and on top of that the company will ask for incentives from the state of North Carolina...all for jobs created from a Federal contract.
The new company will inject $180,249 in capital equipment according to the article. So let's estimate that the state of NC and City of Burlington combine to inject $125,000 (based on $55,000 from Alamance County). That's a 50% investment by taxpayers for a company who might bring 110 jobs immediately.
Now what's really interesting is the last company that had the contract went bankrupt. Yes, that's right they went bankrupt. Not only that but according to a conversation I had with Tim Sutton (the only "no" vote) the CEO did not even know what E-Verify was. Given the large Hispanic population of Alamance county that makes this deal even worse.
We could pretend for a minute that this made sense from a risk vs. reward standpoint (which really is what free market business boils down to). This mindset of bringing jobs into an area by using "incentives" and "special deals" sets up a cesspool of corruption and buy-outs of politicians...kind of like the lobbying problem in Washington DC. Not only that but it's not fair to risk taxpayer money for a corporation that may or may not survive. Take a look at Microsoft in Winston-Salem and Google in Lenoir, NC.
I make clear I will vote against any such proposals for the people of Alamance County.
http://www.thetimesnews.com/articles/approve-51347-commissioners-incentive.html
The new company will inject $180,249 in capital equipment according to the article. So let's estimate that the state of NC and City of Burlington combine to inject $125,000 (based on $55,000 from Alamance County). That's a 50% investment by taxpayers for a company who might bring 110 jobs immediately.
Now what's really interesting is the last company that had the contract went bankrupt. Yes, that's right they went bankrupt. Not only that but according to a conversation I had with Tim Sutton (the only "no" vote) the CEO did not even know what E-Verify was. Given the large Hispanic population of Alamance county that makes this deal even worse.
We could pretend for a minute that this made sense from a risk vs. reward standpoint (which really is what free market business boils down to). This mindset of bringing jobs into an area by using "incentives" and "special deals" sets up a cesspool of corruption and buy-outs of politicians...kind of like the lobbying problem in Washington DC. Not only that but it's not fair to risk taxpayer money for a corporation that may or may not survive. Take a look at Microsoft in Winston-Salem and Google in Lenoir, NC.
I make clear I will vote against any such proposals for the people of Alamance County.
http://www.thetimesnews.com/articles/approve-51347-commissioners-incentive.html