roachDurham wasted $70,000 in “incentive” dollars, earned by the hard work of Durham citizens and taken from them via the tax system, on a company that has now fled town like a thief in the night:

ACW Technology – the U.K.-based contract manufacturing company that, back in 2010, waged an incentives bidding battle among municipalities in the Triangle as well as in Maryland and Virginia – has already shut down the Durham production plant where it had promised to create 155 jobs.

ACW Technology had agreed to invest $4.9 million in a building at the Research Tri-Center industrial park in Durham. The company had also promised to create 155 jobs for employees who would assemble electromechanical products, such as for printed circuit boards, computers and digital video recorders.

And why did they choose Durham? Because our city fathers were chumps enough to bid more in “incentive” funds than other localities:

In return, the city of Durham committed $70,000 in incentives and the North Carolina Department of Commerce committed $50,000 from the state’s One North Carolina Fund if ACW met its hiring goals.

ACW had also been considering sites in Wake and Franklin counties, as well as sites in Maryland and Virginia.

Do you notice what’s missing in this story? Notice that there is not one word from Mayor Bill Bell or any of the members of the City Council. Funny how, when companies agree to accept their “incentive” bribes, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an honorable, but when things turn soft and brown, they scatter like roaches when the lights turn on.