The NCGA Fiscal Research Division presented a report on corporate welfare to the Joint Select Committee on Economic Development Incentives today. The report was required by Session Law 2007-522 (Extra Session), which you may recognize as the same legislation that gave $60 million to Goodyear/Bridgestone/Firestone.
The report, Economic Development Inventory (EDI) discloses that state spending on economic development in both direct incentives and support programs for Fiscal Year 2006-07 was $1.26 Billion. Corporate income taxes were estimated to generate $1.05 Billion in revenue for the same year. What if we eliminated all corporate welfare programs and used that money to reduce the corporate income tax for all businesses? Talk about an incentive to set up shop and conduct business in North Carolina!
The Committee is supposed to determine what the goals are for North Carolina?s corporate welfare program and whether current programs are meeting those goals. It would seem that they should have considered that before spending billions in taxpayers? money.
