Dell is still silent; Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines says it’s 150; rumors are circulating that it’s 300, though (what is she supposed to say) Winston-Salem chamber president Gayle Anderson says that number is “grossly overstated.”
Though Joines (what is he supposed to say) is still confident that Dell will stay in business in order to fulfill the terms of its massive economic incentives package, it’s good to see that perhaps others have learned a lesson:
If an incentive is small and makes a difference it could be a good idea, said Robert Whaples, an economics professor at Wake Forest University.
But on the whole, Whaples said, incentives packages have a weak track record. Plus they pit communities against each other in bidding wars, he said, so that the winner is the “person who overvalues everything.” That makes it hard for the benefits to outweigh the cost, he said.
Commissioner Gloria Whisenhunt, who cast the county’s only vote against the Dell package, said the Dell experience may be in the back of commissioners’ minds when they think about future incentives.
Note that Dell has stick it out in Forsyth County for another 18 months before the they’re free and clear on the $22 million in local economic incentives. I wonder if they know that……
Update: The Journal editorializes, saying “taxpayers deserve answers” from Dell. They also call for “federal legislation is needed to end the practice of incentives, which the Journal has reluctantly endorsed for Dell and other companies.” I hate to be cynical here, but that’s the Journal’s way of saying they don’t approve of economic incentives while simultaneously approving of economic incentives. Either that or their blind faith in the federal government is stronger than we can imagine. I think the former.
