The Buncombe County Commissioners got excited over economic development incentives. $10 million in Recovery Zone Facility Bonds was awarded to Reich, Inc. to locate a factory in the county. Reich was described as a German manufacturer of precision tools and instrumentation. Chair David Gantt wanted taxpayers to understand the money was not coming from property taxes, but it would be paid in the form of waived federal taxes. Arguments that one taxpayer’s break is another’s added burden, or that government shouldn’t be collecting tax dollars from one company to subsidize its competitors, don’t go anywhere with government these days. In fact, just about every expenditure in government is described as already having been spent, a funds transfer, use of existing capacity, or passthrough dollars.
Following the anticipated elation experienced by the masses in knowing their income taxes, and not their property taxes, were paying for Reich, the commissioners shared their excitement for spending $1.8 million in outright county dollars on an economic development incentive for Nypro. Nypro is going to expand to manufacture new diabetic supplies. If your brain did not switch from disdaining the apportionment of property taxes in favor of government’s pet industries to liking it between paragraphs, you probably watch too much FOX TV.
