Economic incentives, the veto, and the Triad
Alright, here's why your Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem and surrounding area) representatives are not going to get all worked up over this incentives debate/veto/intramural tussle among Democrats.
As my friends at Dome and the Tavern are reporting, the honorables are on the verge of creating a $60 million (give or take - details, schme-tails) grant program.
My understanding is that it would still only be for large employers - those with 1,500 or more employees - in Tier 1 - economically poorly off - counties.
Around our area, Caswell and Rockingham Counties are the only Tier 1 counties. Some late night research at the Employment Security Commission and economic developers' websites show that Caswell's largest private employer is Royal Park Uniforms, with somewhere south of 250 workers.
In Rockingham, the largest manufacturers seem to be lead by Miller Brewing and a couple of textile companies, all who have 700 or fewer employees.
So neither, it would seem, could benefit from this new incentive grant.
Of course the less parochial views are:
- What's good for one location in North Carolina is good for all of North Carolina.
- It's all your tax money.
- This is kind of a departure in state economic development policy and could pave the way for future changes in state law.
At any rate, the closest Triad connection to all this seems to be the fact that there is a Goodyear Tire plant in Asheboro, albeit one that's not in the running for these incentives either. Randolph, Davidson and Alamance counties are Tier 2 counties.