After repeatedly criticizing government decisions to grant businesses “incentives” for locating or expanding operations in North Carolina, I was encouraged to see that the state was taking a different course with regard to the Panthers’ stadium. In late January, there was an announcement to that effect from Thom Tillis, the House Speaker, and yesterday Pat McCrory echoed the same sentiments when he said this week that, for the stadium, “There is no state money at this point in time in our budget.” Maybe the McCrory administration understood the folly of interfering in the market by attempting to pick winners and losers.
And then today I read that AREVA, a nuclear energy company, has been given state grants worth up to $2.5 million to expand its operations in Charlotte. Despair. Maybe the McCrory administration doesn’t understand that folly after all.