Tuesday, October 04, 2005

I am not a huge fan of such things as giving corporate incentives

I am not a huge fan of giving private industry tax payer funds, tax breaks, or other incentives on the hope and promise of bringing more jobs and revenue than was invested by the local government(s). Dell and Sysco are two that come to mind. Dell was perhaps the most outrageous deal in quite some time. Now, even a small town such as Micro has done the same. For the Micro slaughterhouse, both the county and the town are contributing to an incentive package. Rather than offer a great location, work force, utilities, zoning, and cooperation, many local governments prefer to bribe businesses to come locate to their jurisdictions. I just plain have a problem with this as a corporate welfare package. Seldom have I heard of great benefits derived from such agreements. I have heard plenty of negative, however.

I personally would like to open a used book store here in Selma. I already have sufficient inventory to open a decent sized store. I doubt that I would get an incentive package to do so, nor would I expect one. Small businesses and taxpayers get hosed while large business grows at our expense.

Often times, businesses would relocate to your area, anyway, such as in the Dell deal. Taxpayers took it on the chin, none the less.

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