"This is from the 2013 North Carolina Republican Party platform:
"5. We oppose bailouts and corporate welfare. It is contrary to the free enterprise system to recruit or retain businesses with targeted tax incentives when other businesses bear the full burden of taxation. Higher tax rates on the many to provide preferential treatment for the few is unfair."
Even after years of watching politics, the eagerness of local Republicans to grant "incentives" contrary to the stated position of their own party is breathtaking.
What we in northeastern Randolph County have learned battling our own group of incentives-addicted leaders is that when it comes to spending tax dollars there are no Republicans and there are no Democrats. Nearly every one of them is a Big Government Republicrat. Their differences are over the proper beneficiaries of public spending. As Senator Rick Gunn of Alamance said at a town hall meeting in Randolph earlier this year, "the state has pots of money" available for development projects. As I said.
You might also have noticed that our Republican-dominated state government refused this year to allow North Carolinians to vote on a constitutional amendment banning eminent domain for economic development purposes. And this after years of blaming the evil Democrats for refusing to allow their proposal for the issue to come to a public vote.
As I said, each of them are Big Government proponents. If you want some truth on the incentives issue in particular, go to nomegasitehere.com. That's where the dirty side of the incentives world is discussed--you know, the one the Republicrats don't want to talk about."
Attorney Alan Ferguson practices in Greensboro, lives in Liberty and is leading the fight against the Randolph County megasite. It is estimated it will cost the City of Greensboro $22 Million Dollars to run water and sewer lines to the site before cost overruns are figured in and the site is 20 miles outside of the Greensboro City Limits and cannot be annexed.
Didn't the Greensboro City Council pass an ordinance prohibiting Council from providing incentives to developers whose projects cannot be annexed? In this instance, wouldn't the City of Greensboro be considered one of the developers?
Previously: Alan Ferguson On The Greensboro-Randolph Megasite
