Really? We’re back here again? Evidently Job Development Investment Grants, historic preservation tax credits, and film incentives are all back on the table, because the governor thinks North Carolina needs them.
Dan Way, quoting Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown, says it well in his latest Carolina Journal article.
“If it’s all just about money and incentives, that’s a poor place to be, I think, when you’re trying to negotiate to recruit,” Brown said. Instead, the goal is to create an atmosphere that attracts corporate suitors for education and tax policy reasons, not just sweetening the incentives pot to outbid other states.
And his article goes on,
“We’ve got an addiction to the incentive program we’re going to have to take a look at,” said state Rep. Rick Catlin, R-New Hanover.
Catlin is right, and everyone knows that you don’t help an addict by feeding his addition. North Carolina needs to lower tax rates for all businesses, and create a more business-friendly environment across the board, rather than trying to pick winners and losers, something they’re really not very good at. Forget targeted incentives. If you build a better environment for all businesses, they will come.
