McCrory must make his economic development program more transparent
Published June 27, 2014
Editorial by Winston-Salem Journal, June 26, 2014.
Gov. Pat McCrory’s fellow Republicans have finally carried him to a victory. But it’s a dubious one, that of privatizing economic development efforts. We’ve long objected to this effort, noting the potential for abuses inherent in similar efforts by Democrats. But now that the governor’s push is a fait accompli, we repeat our call that this private effort must be transparent and free of conflicts of interest.
There is already far too much privacy in the incentives game we’re forced to play, with municipal officials statewide constantly promising taxpayer dollars to “unnamed companies” until the last stages of the game.
The legislature has passed a bill that will privatize recruitment efforts, the Journal’s Richard Craver reported. McCrory has signed it into law.
Craver reported: “McCrory and Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker said the creation of the N.C. Economic Development Partnership is a key reform mechanism for making the state more competitive and flexible in recruiting large projects. They have said the partnership will be transparent in its decisions and accountable to taxpayers as it creates and operates a ‘one-stop shop’ for businesses considering operations in the state.”
McCrory touts the measure as part of the “Carolina Comeback,” does have support from some local economic development leaders, and supporters say safeguards are in place.
But we contend that the governor and the legislature need to tweak some of the provisions in this law to make the program more transparent and accountable to the public.
That’s needed because critics of the partnership proposal say the revised bills ease standards for what they term “pay- to-play incentive granting.”
“North Carolina’s taxpayers need more than a wink and a nod towards accountability for our state’s economic development efforts,” Allen Freyer, a public policy analyst with left-leaning N.C. Budget & Tax Center told the Journal.
“Just because the new partnership won’t officially make incentive recommendations, doesn’t mean pay-to-play won’t happen. It is absolutely certain that Commerce officials will be in the room when the business recruiters from the partnership are wining and dining prospective businesses. This opens the door to preferential treatment and consideration of those businesses that gave donations to the new partnership,” Freyer told the Journal.
As Craver noted. “In October, a nonpartisan Washington research center, Good Jobs First, offered stark criticism of public-private economic development strategies in eight states. ‘We found very troubling patterns of abuse when states privatize what is already a corporate-dominated system,’ said Greg LeRoy, Good Jobs First's executive director. ‘Our findings are cautionary for states with and without privatized agencies.’”
Indeed. State economic development efforts, however one spins them, involve public money. We all should have the right to transparency in how that money is spent to make sure there are no conflicts of interest in those expenditures.
McCrory has his victory. Now he must follow it up by making sure that his new program is transparent and free of conflicts of interest.
