It’s time to celebrate again. Alliance-Carolina is going out of business. It was a privately-owned manufacturer of plastic parts. 70-80 people will lose their jobs. Not to worry. Government recently created as many jobs in Buncombe County. You can read Reich GmbH’s explanation of how various government agencies “introduced” the German manufacturing company to Western North Carolina. A government web site explains the introduction was more like a $175,000 economic incentive with a local match.
I seldom recall events verbatim, but at the Buncombe County Commisioners’ meeting in which the grant was awarded, great effort was expended to give the impression that, in essence, no taxpayer dollars were going toward this exciting job creator. The home page of the One North Carolina Fund, the source of the $175,000, explains the “fund” gets “appropriations” from the General Assembly to award “M-O-N-E-Y” to corporations.
In case you’re wondering why newspapers are not straightforward in saying government is giving a corporation so many dollars, consider that the last article I submitted elsewhere for publication never saw daylight. It could be it was poorly written. After all, one sounds like a maniac repeating declarations that subsidies are really not subsidies and so forth. Then again, it might have something to do with speaking out against corporate welfare given to a major advertiser.
