International research shows “if corruption is rampant, time spent with bureaucrats and regulatory burden are high.” The causation seems to go in both directions, but corruption has an effect on investment and growth: “a worsening in the host government’s corruption level by the same extent (that is, from the level of Singapore to that of Mexico) has the same negative effect on inward FDI as raising the marginal tax rate by 50 percentage points.”

Turns out that a Republican member of the Union County water and sewer board, Irene Broaddus “offered, for a fee of up to $37,500, to help a group of developers get political approval for a Weddington sewer project.” Maybe Broaddus is trying to apply this research in a bid to slow growth in the county.