Incentives are not the reason NC lost Volvo
Published April 23, 2015
by Sarah Curry, John Locke Foundation, April 22, 2015.
I have been seeing legislators blaming the Senate for not passing House Bill 117 as the reason for North Carolina not getting the Volvo plant. But what lawmakers forget is that incentives are not the only reason a company picks a state. According to a Charlotte Business Journal article,
“…some site-selection consultants say the state’s mega-sites aren’t up to par with others in the Southeast.”
“Both Georgia and South Carolina are getting their legislative and regulatory houses in order to compete for the plant.”
“Officials in Berkeley County in South Carolina are working on permits…”
It seems to me, like the Toyota deal that fell through, there are things about North Carolina that keep this type of business from coming to the state other than the amount of money we will give them. Toyota needed a direct flight to Tokyo – our airports didn’t have that. Now, Volvo needs a large mega-site (ours aren’t very good), they need a good regulatory climate (ours is too burdensome) and ease with or less permitting (we have a ridiculous amount of permits).
So lawmakers….if you want to make North Carolina attractive to business, maybe it is time to start looking at the reasons businesses don’t come here over our other Southeastern neighbors instead of pointing the finger or running to the taxpayer funded checkbook.
April 23, 2015 at 10:22 am
Norm Kelly says:
But it's so EASY to blame taxpayers. Just ask demon pols, they do it all the time. It's not just a habit for demons, it's their default position on anything. Government monopoly schools don't fail for any reason other than taxpayers who don't fork over enough money.
Roads & bridges aren't getting repaired NOT because pols keep raiding the fund, but because taxpayers don't fork over enough money.
The list of areas where pols, almost always lib/demon, tell us that taxpayers are simply to cheap is long, and I'm only one guy. It's not like I can remember ALL the areas pols want to spend more of MY money!
April 24, 2015 at 1:02 pm
Richard L Bunce says:
Ms. Curry gets right to the heart of the matter.
This affects existing business in NC as well as any new business thinking of coming into NC.
