Asheville City Council’s discussion about Project X tonight began with a presentation by Economic Development Director Sam Powers. Unlike the folks at the Buncombe County Commissioners’ meeting, Powers refrained from using pie charts and graphs exemplary of government algorithms that consider subtraction advanced beyond utility. Citizen Jerry Rice mentioned some of the unsubtracted quantities. He added that the mystery recipient, who everybody now knows is GE Aviation, has more money than Asheville City and Buncombe County governments combined. “Did you get that one?” he asked after stating so. He continued with general complaints against corporate welfare.
Councilman Cecil Bothwell alone voted against the $1.56 million economic development incentive package. He said he despised the secrecy. Not only was it goofy, nobody knew what it was hiding, if anything. It was known that the company would be producing aviation components. He hoped they would be for commercial airliners, but it would be nice to let Ashevillians, who collectively are so anti-war they voted for Dennis Kucinich in “the” primary, have some say in whether or not they wanted a significant piece of the military industrial complex in their neighborhood. To emphasize the importance of transparency, he added if they were to produce nerve gas, he was sure the neighbors would have something to say.
Mayor Bellamy, upon returning from a conference call, chastised the councilman for casting aspersions about a company who was “not here to defend itself.” Bothwell countered they had had refused every opportunity to make their identity known, and they would not even share what they intended to manufacture with the local representatives who would be the gatekeepers for their largesse. Bellamy said the harsh allegations were not kind. People worked for that company already, and they needed the good jobs to feed their families, just as the Brown Shirts did.
Members of council said they agreed with the common taters, who all spoke against or at least questioningly about the project; but GE’s awards would be given after the manufacturer grew the tax base. Had the public been given a chance to rebut, they might have accused council of telling on itself. If its taxes are so high they can provide adequate public safety and infrastructure for the new guys for free, maybe they’re charging the old taxpayers too much.
