John Locke Foundation’s Joe Coletti gives his thoughts in this WRAL article on the economic development incentives program put out by legislators on Thursday. The incentives program is meant to lure big business to North Carolina.

The proposal includes the elimination of a $6,500 per job incentives cap.

Joe Coletti, senior fellow at the conservative John Locke Foundation, a frequent critic of incentives, questioned the elimination of the incentives cap.

“Removing the caps takes a bad policy and puts an exclamation point on it,” Coletti said, adding that he believes some limit will eventually be reinserted in the legislation.

“Incentives packages that states put together are about show business,” he said. “They’re about states demonstrating they’re trying to do something to bring business in.”

Changes to the incentives program also include reducing thresholds to $1 billion in capitol investment and 3,000 jobs.

Sources told WRAL News that Apple plans to open a research and development facility in North Carolina, bringing at least 3,000 jobs and as many as 10,000 over time. The sources put the investment between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.

 Sources said negotiations with the tech giant led to the incentives tweaks and that the company is likely to build a major research and development hub in Research Triangle Park. But Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Tim Moore denied that the changes are aimed at any specific target.