News-Record.com

If today's story on incentives for Epes Logistics seems heavy with council members opposed to the deal, there's a simple reason. They're the ones that returned my phone calls.

So while I would have gladly included incentive supporter Robbie Perkins in the story, I didn't talk with him until today. So for you, local Scoop readers, here's another voice on the issue.

While other council members suspect that Epes is bluffing when they say the expansion could go elsewhere, Perkins says it's not worth the risk to let a corporate headquarters go elsewhere.

"We could call their bluff all day long, but one day we'll be dead wrong," Perkins said.

He pointed to RF Micro Devices, which has asked for and received several rounds of incentives from Greensboro and Guilford County. He said he was shown evidence that the company was set to move to Norcross, Ga. before the city stepped in with its own incentive plan.

When asked, Perkins couldn't cite a case when the city lost a company after it turned down an incentive request. But he said that even if one in fifty deals were lost calling a company's bluff, that would be too many.

In a broader sense, Perkins said, the debate is more about the image Greensboro has in the world of economic development. He said that business recruiters in High Point and Greenville, S.C. are likely clipping out our story to show companies that Greensboro is unfriendly, or at least ambivalent about attracting companies.

"The message is that Greensboro doesn't want them here," he said.