Steven Goldsmith: No-lose incentives

In two recent items relating to business incentives, the writers failed to point out that the state pays no money to any business until it makes investments, creates jobs and pays taxes. The only time the taxpayers lose is when a business chooses not to invest in North Carolina because our state isn’t competitive.

Brian Balfour’s Oct. 24 Point of View “Just a cottage industry of cronyism” and Rob Christensen’s Oct. 25 column “Big companies get the incentives” don’t mention that the state pays only a portion of the taxes paid as a rebate to those companies that create jobs.

Opponents of business incentives believe there is someone simply writing checks to friends of government, but that isn’t true. The state has created a responsible “pay for performance” plan that ensures the state never pays more to companies than it receives in tax revenue.

If a company doesn’t fulfill its obligation, it receives no incentives. It’s a no-lose scenario for taxpayers.

We should applaud Department of Commerce Secretary John Skvarla, Gov. Pat McCrory and the legislature for renewing the incentive plans and should encourage them to do more to attract high-paying jobs.

This story was originally published October 26, 2015 at 4:24 PM with the headline "Steven Goldsmith: No-lose incentives."