North Carolina Commerce officials should be abuzz with latest news on Dell in the WSJ.
The Round Rock, Texas, company last week reported disappointing
quarterly profit that helped send shares down more than 18%, and has
been trying to reduce expenses since early last year. Dell’s factories were originally tailored for a PC market that was
driven by corporate customers ordering large volumes of desktop PCs.
But over the past three years, growth has shifted to laptops sold to
consumers at retail stores.
Here’s the real kicker for the taxpayers of North Carolina who ponied up $300m+.
One person briefed on the plan said he expects the company to sell most
— and possibly all — of its factories “within the next 18 months.” . . . Dell’s North Carolina plant, for example, received several million
dollars of state and local tax incentives that are contingent on the
factory meeting certain employment and local-investment goals by 2015. Dell (recently) has unveiled a series of more stylish products and laid off about 8,500 workers
Yet again, the “free-market” shifts in unpredictable ways and shows why the state shouldn’t be gambling with taxpayer money giveaways. Not seeing a lot of news in North Carolina over this disturbing possibility. But Commerce has a motto, “it’s easier to give away money than to market our state with a better tax code.”
