“North Carolina has never met a targeted tax break it didn’t like,” as my Heartland Institute colleague Steve Stanek (who has watched these things nationwide for years) said today, but this one has to take the cake (nice quote from Coletti in the article too). From The Charlotte Observer:
Continental Automotive announced Monday that it will expand its
plant in Fletcher ? just south of Asheville ? with 338 jobs averaging
$36,179 in wages per year. The facility makes brake calipers, which
squeeze the wheel to slow vehicles.Continental will receive
up to $2.2 million in state grants for bringing the positions.
Henderson County offered up to $1 million over seven years in tax
rebates, and Fletcher added up to $500,000 in the same period.In
May, the company told the state it laid off 90 people at its Morganton
anti-lock brake plant after Chrysler filed for bankruptcy.
For a company to move 90 jobs just 60 miles within a state and get
$3.7 million for its trouble is beyond absurd. Meanwhile the legislature and the governor are prepared to pass $1 billion in new taxes for the next state budget. Add in the rampant corruption in recent history, how can the Democrats continue to hold power? They keep winning elections, so they will probably find a way.
The phone number for the clowns at the NC Department of Commerce, who approved the state portion of this mess, is here if you want to thank them for their generosity with your money.
