Yesterday’s Winston-Salem Journal lead editorial on the possible closing of the Forsyth Dell plant:
If the plant is sold or if Dell makes a deal with another company to run the plant, that would raise the question of whether the incentives promised to Dell could be transferred to another company. If that could happen, officials would have to make sure that the new owner or operator is worth trusting with millions of dollars in incentives.
Ideally, Dell will hold onto the local plant. But if it doesn’t, officials will be left with one big problem to tackle.
Dell was doing great when state and local officials went for this incentives deal, and when we backed it on this page. But we saw this deal, just as other incentive deals, as a necessary evil in today’s business world.
What’s needed is federal legislation to end incentives and all the costly headaches they can entail.
Yeah, and Dell was sure thing, right? And the Journal’s call for federal legislation to end incentives rings hollow. Forgive me for being cynical, but that’s an attempt to cover their own hides and those of local leaders, knowing full well federal legislation to end incentives stands a snowball’s chance in hell. It’s also like saying you killed someone because there was no law against murder. Still doesn’t make it right, does it?
