Joan Plotnick: The incentives business

Regarding the May 12 new article “Volvo bid loss blamed on legislators”: It’s astonishing how people decry business incentives as “corporate welfare” until we lose jobs to a neighboring state. Then we need more Job Development Incentive Grants, tax breaks for movie companies and the like.

We can’t have it both ways – criticize government when it offers corporate tax breaks and then cry about jobs lost without them. By the way, no matter what the South Carolina governor said, the deciding factor in Volvo’s location was not workforce training. What South Carolina offers employers in terms of free employee training (entry-level only) pales in comparison to what North Carolina offers through its community colleges. It has for a long time.

This story was originally published May 15, 2015 at 5:10 PM with the headline "Joan Plotnick: The incentives business."