The Winston-Salem Journal’s Scott Sexton weighs in on the City Council’s recent vote to ‘invest’ $2.8 million in four run-down shopping centers:
That the council so eagerly and overwhelming yet again embraced sinking that kind of coin into private businesses really comes as no surprise.
The august body is not overrun by Adam Smith-style free marketeers. Capitalism and corporate welfare have long comingled here. (Proposed new city motto: “Who do we make the check out to?”)
The money that Dell returned appears to be eating a hole in the collective pockets of council. Of the $15.5 million Dell sent back — it was eligible for up to $38 million in local incentives and $267 million from the state — about $4 million remains.
But that $15.5 million isn’t free or found money. It is money the city paid out to entice Dell to build the ill-fated and still for sale plant on Union Cross. There’s nothing that says it has to be spent.
Down U.S. 311, the High Point City Council continues to debate its proposed retail incentives policy.
