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Rich Get Richer, Poor Get Diddly
Submitted by Gordon Smith on Sat, 01/10/2009 - 8:29am
The Mountain Xpress features this story:
Two major N.C. incentives programs sent large portions of funding for increased corporate expansion and job creation to areas of the state that basically needed it the least, according to a study by the Durham office of the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a Washington, D.C.-based advocate for federal and state economic policies.
The study, the subject of a report on in today’s Charlotte Business Journal, was based on data from the N.C. Department of Commerce and covered the years 2003 to 2006 for the One North Carolina Fund and the Job Development Investment Grant — or JDIG — program. It found that One North Carolina spent some $22 million, or 49 percent of its allocation, to increase jobs through corporate expansion in the richest 20 counties of the state, and that JDIG spent some $331 million of its $376 million (88 percent) to spark job creation in the better-off counties.
The researchers also found that 51 percent of the state’s oldest incentives program, the 12-year-old William S. Lee tax credit program, went to businesses in the 20 richest counties. Report authors Frank DiSilvestro and Bill Schweke‘s conclusion: “The current incentives programs are not servicing those parts of the state the need the most help.”
Folks out here in the mountains are always wondering when the rest of the state will notice that we exist. I mean, aside from that trip to the Biltmore Estate they make every so often.
Economic incentives for businesses in rural counties are vital to creating and retaining jobs. Without them, we're struggling to create local economies without any large economic engines.
Dang, Gordon
I hadn't seen that. I wonder if these will also be the counties that will probably see the largest numbers of new unemployment claims and mortgage foreclosures since all that business development brought huge numbers to our area. Union is basically rural, but the western part of the county sits close enough to Mecklenburg that it sees some business growth. Out here in the eastern part of the county we get diddly. Just a small area of our county grew enough last year to qualify Union as the seventh fastest growing county in the nation. I wonder just how much we'll shrink this year?
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Currently lacking a witty signature.
NE NC is growing fast
Camden and Currituck are growing, but the work force is working in Virginia.
Would have to ask my County Manager if we received any JDIG funds. Yea, we have had a few mom and pop stores open and our Fed Ex distrbution center is building a new building, but is that really an explosion of jobs that enable my county to become self sufficient or near self sufficient?
The Fed Ex center is going to move. It is not an expansion. Maybe a few jobs will be added. But now we will have an empty building outside of Hertford. We have an entire strip mall with nothing in it. We built a Curves and added two banks and a Fastenal warehouse. We reopened a Hardies. That is the businesses for my county that I am aware of.
My county will still require a lot of support from Raleigh. More then should be. It is not because we do not want to work. It is because there is no reason for jobs to come to our county. We are a small county as well as small in population. We like our rural quite atmosphere. That is part of our problem.
Should we be forced to accept expansionism at the expense of our overall desire? Accept the short term goal of jobs at the expense of long term "home"?
Tough question.
Might be one reason why so much of the money went where it did.
You all are looking at this all wrong
Y'all....business/industry go to the areas that will serve them best. It's not just about incentives and such. It's about far more including but not limited to access to shipping lanes and rail access and accessibility with regard to raw materials and so forth. It's about a qualified/educated/experienced work force. If one particular area in NC gives that to employers, then that's where our state...as a whole...should dedicate its efforts. People can move, that's what's happened throughout our state's history and our country's history. When Miller Brewing Co. in Eden NC was built, it drew people from all over the state...a huge percentage from around the Charlotte area...but Miller came to Eden because of access to a huge amount of water. They got their jobs and moved closer to where they were employed. It's what we, as Americans do. To question why one particular area in our state doesn't get industry/business ventures is really kind of silly. There's a reason for where these employers locate...and it's not because of who will be best served or what area needs it the most...it's about what serves the employer best.
The best thinking is independent thinking.
We can't compete?
"20 richest counties" is a vague measure. Buncombe was ranked 18 in per capita income in 2006 by the BEA, but I know from experience that that's heavily weighted here by investment, rental and retirement income. It doesn't speak to what people here who work for a living actually earn - or don't, as the case may be.
I'm not a fan of state incentives - what the Asheville Citizen-Times dubbed an "economic arms race" - but if officials higher up the food chain have decided to play that game, then I believe counties outside the Triangle, the Triad and Mecklenberg should get more attention.
This week, Dale Carroll head of WNC's state regional development authority, Advantage West (it's not much of an advantage in my book) just got appointed by Bev Perdue to be a deputy commerce secretary in Raleigh. Buh-bye. Now can we get someone effective?
Two thousand people showed up at the Homecoming Job Fair in Buncombe on 12/30, backing traffic down the exit ramp onto I-26. It made national news.
I sent a note about it to our city, county and state officials, commenting (once again) on the sorry state of the manufacturing economy here in the west. But what I consistently hear are talking points explaining why the mountains can't compete for manufacturing jobs with the other parts of the state/region.
If I made excuses like that with my employers. I'd be out of a job. I get paid for results.
The Citizen-Times also got an op-ed from me this week on this topic as well. Watch for it, Gordon.