Since state and local leaders have caught heat about the incentives package that helped bring a Google data center to Lenoir, the Senate Finance Committee used a one-hour hearing this afternoon to tout the benefits of the deal.
News reports have characterized the Google deal as up to $260 million in incentives for 210 jobs.
- N.C. Commerce Secretary Jim Fain says that headline doesn’t tell the whole story.
- Fain was not able to offer Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson, a better dollar figure for the total price tag for Google incentives.
Local leaders also had a chance to defend the deal.
- Lenoir Mayor David Barlow says the deal will not cost his city any money.
- Caldwell County commissioners chair Faye Higgins says the Google deal already has produced benefits.
Senators did not debate the merits of incentives during the hearing. But some left the hearing room unconvinced that the state got the good deal Commerce officials promised.
