A story in this morning’s News & Observer describes “Project Huge,” an effort to use targeted tax incentives to keep existing jobs in the Charlotte area.
Writer Jonathan Cox captures the silliness of incentives in his opening paragraphs:
Incentives used to bring new jobs.
Increasingly, they’re being used to keep existing ones.
State
and Charlotte-area business recruiters are lining up enticements for a
105-year-old Charlotte manufacturer that wants to build a new plant and
move about 30 miles away. The company, which nobody involved in the
negotiations would identify, is not expected to add jobs.In fact, it eventually could trim its 477-employee work force through attrition.
Those sentences should offer enough evidence that the scheme doesn’t make sense. Forget for a moment that government shouldn’t be in the business of picking economic winners and losers. Forget that targeted tax incentives offered for new jobs basically penalize existing companies and stop them from creating jobs that don’t need taxpayer support.
Why the heck does anyone think it’s a good idea to use incentives for a business like this? Why should taxpayers pay to help a company downsize?
Perhaps this “huge” example will win more converts to the ranks of those who see the folly in this type of endeavor.
