Senate Bill 820 made it’s way through the North Carolina General Assembly quickly last week. It now puts into law more tax incentives for big businesses. These corporate giveaways provide financial assistance and tax advantages to wealthy corporations but JLF’s Jon Sanders points out that businesses would rather have sensible government policies, like a lower state corporate tax rate, that benefit all businesses, large and small.
Out of a list of 19 important factors for North Carolina’s business climate, executives ranked state and local economic development tax incentives 15th and 16th. The only things they found less important than tax incentives were being able to access low-cost labor, mass transit infrastructure, and availability of unskilled labor.
Put another way, asked how important tax incentives were, business executives said they could name 14 things more important to the state’s business climate:
- skilled labor
- the state regulatory burden
- state corporate tax rate
- local property tax rates
- community colleges
- state personal income tax rate
- highways
- information technology infrastructure
- four-year colleges and universities
- housing costs
- environmental regulations
- land prices
- workforce training programs
- major airport
Even incentives recipients think lower tax rates across the board would be better
Jon argues that our government should be playing a more sensible role. A role that does not include handing out corporate welfare in an attempt to micromanage economic growth in the state. Read more here.
The John Locke Foundation continually warns against corporate incentive programs. A few examples are here , here, and here.
