Another interesting note on the $60 Million Great Tire Give Away enacted this week?..
As the bill was written initially, there was no provision that prohibited companies receiving the grants from employing illegal immigrants.
Once a compromise was reached on Tuesday and the bill introduced it was sent to the House Appropriations Committee for a brief explanation and limited debate.
Rep. George Cleveland (R- Onslow) was able to amend the bill by adding an eligibility requirement that ?all newly hired employees of the business must be citizens of the United States?.? So, in order for a company to get $60 million in state taxpayer?s money, all new employees of the company have to be legal U.S. citizens. Rep. Cleveland?s amendment passed by a voice vote and the bill was sent to the full House for consideration.
Rep. John Blust (R-Guilford) proposed an amendment during the House floor debate that would have deleted the words ?newly hired? from the eligibility requirement. What that meant was that ALL employees would have to be legal citizens in order for a company to receive state taxpayers? money. The amendment failed 56-49. The vote tally can be found here.
In addition to the other bad policy in this bill, only newly hired employees of Goodyear and Bridgestone/Firestone must be legal citizens of the US. I don?t know if there are any illegal aliens among the 5,000 or so current employees of these companies that are getting $60 million of taxpayers? money but there is nothing in this legislation that prohibits it.
