WRAL TechWire graciously gave the John Locke Foundation the opportunity to explain our position on government incentives, with the Triangle area in the running for Amazon’s HQ2 or a new Apple campus. Here’s the link.
A quick teaser:
It’s important that Amazon or Apple choose the Triangle based on these or other business factors. Using government incentives to induce that choice, especially the new “transformative project” enhancement to the state’s Job Development Investment Grant program, in concert with local government incentives, poses a significant risk of turning an economic boost into an inefficient wealth transfer, ultimately causing net harm to the economy. The greater the incentives, the more likely the harm.
You can read more on JLF’s discussion of incentives with respect to Amazon HQ2 here.