Barry Smith - In the Loop


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Archive for the 'Corporate Welfare' Category

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Bob Orr leaving institute, headed for private practice

November 8th, 2011, 2:23 pm by

Former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Orr is leaving the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law.

Orr, who sought the GOP nomination for governor in 2008, said he does not plan another political run. Instead, he’s going to be joining a law firm in private practice.

“They’re going to be making an announcement toward the end of the week,” Orr said. “I’m returning to my roots in the private sector.”

Jeanette Doran, who has been the institute’s senior staff attorney, will succeed Orr as executive director of the organization.

The institute, which gets significant funding from the Pope Foundation, has made efforts to challenge a number of economic incentives. It’s also challenged the state’s lottery law, the use of transportation trust fund money and helped the state superintendent of public instruction retain much of her authority.

Doran said that the institute is in the process of trying to broaden its scope.

“We’re also going to be looking at helping empower people, particularly entrepreneurs and small businesses fighting government regulation,” Doran said.

Doran said the institute would also assist property owners on annexation issues.

Orr has spearheaded the organization’s efforts since he left the N.C. Supreme Court in 2004. He left briefly during his gubernatorial bid in 2008.

Posted in: Corporate Welfare • Politics • Property rights • State government | Post a Comment »

Loss of Project Soccer puts spin doctors in overdrive

October 6th, 2011, 5:28 pm by

I guess if I’d been working in downtown Raleigh today (Thursday) my head would have been spinning.

Politicians of all stripes tried to spin news that Continental Tire had chosen a South Carolina site over one located in Brunswick County to their advantage. The economic development effort had been dubbed “Project Soccer.”

Thursday morning, GOP Senate President Pro-tem Phil Berger of Rockingham County issued a statement critical of Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue, saying Perdue’s proposal “reeked of cronyism.”

Campaign donors to Perdue and other Democrats owned the Brunswick County property picked for the proposed plant and Perdue’s son works for the law firm that was advising the tire company.

Moments before the clock struck noon, the N.C. Democratic Party fired off an email putting the ball in Berger’s court, saying that he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

“The only thing Phil Berger cares about is advancing his own political agenda and pushing his personal vendetta against Gov. Perdue,” said David Parker, N.C. Democratic Party chairman. “Apparently Phil Berger would rather see jobs go to South Carolina than work with the governor. Perhaps he should consider running for office in South Carolina because he certainly isn’t looking out for North Carolinians.”

Not to be outdone, the N.C. Republican Party sent out a statement suggesting that Perdue’s hadn’t stood up to organized labor enough in addition to the campaign donor and her son’s connection to the site. “The troubling choice of a property owned by Perdue’s major donors proved to Continental that the governor was far more interested in pay-to-play politics than actual job creation,” said Robin Hayes, state GOP chairman.

More volleys were lobbed during the afternoon.

Berger called a press conference in which he said the ownership of the property and specifics of the financing deal were causes of concern.

Berger said that legislators needed more information on where the money was going to come from and suggested that the state stick with offering $3 million a year in incentives for 15 years rather than providing the money up front.

“These are tax dollars we’re talking about,” Berger said.

The state Democratic Party then sent out another press release, saying that if the jobs had come to North Carolina, Brunswick County’s unemployment would fall from 10.7 percent to 8.1 percent.

GOP House Speaker Thom Tillis of Mecklenburg County

“We made every effort to work in concert with the governor’s office, but requests by my office for critical information were often delayed or sometimes ignored,” Tillis said.

Perdue issued a statement saying that Berger was “making reckless accusations in order to evade responsibility for his own decision.”

Perdue went on. “I didn’t have any involvement in the site selection process, and it didn’t matter to me what piece of land the company selected, as long as the 1,300 jobs came to North Carolina,” she said.

Chris Mackie, Perdue’s spokeswoman, said that Perdue administration officials did offer funding mechanisms for the project.

Posted in: Bev Perdue • Corporate Welfare • Economy • Ethics • General Assembly • Government spending • Politics • State government | Post a Comment »

Take me out to the subsidized ballgame

April 6th, 2010, 5:07 pm by

Tonight, I’m headed out to watch a college baseball game as Carolina travels to Elon. I’ve set my DVR to record opening night of my favorite major league team – the Baltimore Orioles – as they play at the Tampa Bay Rays.

Yes, baseball is in full swing. And I couldn’t be happier.

As I get ready to leave, I’m reminded of a post by Cato Institute scholar Ilya Shapiro, who noted that big league baseball, like other major league sports, is corrupted by corporate welfare.

He notes that ticket prices have increased across the big leagues at least in part because businesses get an entertainment expense write-off for tickets that they purchase for their clients and employees.

The write-off creates a demand for the tickets, which contributes to price increases. And the business, because of the tax write-off, in effect gets a discounted price.

Shapiro references a New York Times op-ed which notes that newer ballparks are starting to put in more higher-priced skyboxes, which at times result in fewer general admission seating.

America’s national pastime shouldn’t be subsidized by corporate welfare, Shapiro concludes.

Posted in: Corporate Welfare • Federal government • Sports | Post a Comment »

Group challenges payouts to Charlotte cooking school

September 16th, 2009, 3:56 pm by

The N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law has filed a lawsuit seeking to reverse a $10 million deal made between former House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, and Johnson and Wales University, a private cooking and hospitality school in Charlotte.

 

Black is currently serving time in prison on federal public corruption charges. A news release by the institute says that Black made a personal commitment with the university back in 2002, adding that since his resignation and conviction, the state has continued to make appropriations to the school.

 

The organization says the N.C. Constitution prohibits conferring special benefits except in exchange for public service and permits the government to spend public money only to achieve a public purpose. It says that unlike corporate incentives, the money paid to the school are not tied to the creation of new jobs or capital investment projects.

 

“This is simply a gift from Jim Black to the school,” said Bob Orr, the organization’s executive director. Orr is a former justice on the N.C. Supreme Court and was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor last year.

 

“This is the kind of abuse of the public’s money that the constitution forbids,” Orr said.

 

Orr and the institute have had little luck in challenging incentive and corporate welfare plans thus far. However, Orr was successful in a recent lawsuit filed on behalf of June Atkinson, the state’s superintendent of public instruction.

Posted in: Corporate Welfare • Courts • General Assembly • Government spending • State government | Post a Comment »

Smile for the camera; film companies to get bigger tax credit

August 27th, 2009, 3:53 pm by

Gov. Bev Perdue has signed a bill expanding tax credits for the film industry into law. The bill allows an income tax credit of 25 percent of the production expenses for film and television companies. The old credit was 15 percent.

 

To get the credit, companies must spend at least $250,000 on a production in North Carolina. The net impact on the state treasury for the current fiscal year is negative $8.6 million, according to a legislative fiscal analysis. Next year, the increased tax credit is expected to hit the state’s bottom line by $40 million.

 

In a statement released by the governor’s office, Perdue said, “This legislation will help grow our $91 million motion picture industry, preserve and create thousands of jobs and increase investments in yet another emerging economic cluster. Providing a strong foundation for North Carolina’s film industry is essential as we work to build a strong and sustainable economy through increased diversification.”

Posted in: Bev Perdue • Corporate Welfare • Economy • General Assembly • State government • Taxes | Post a Comment »

Do you want to stay up late, or later?

August 6th, 2009, 8:08 pm by

Let’s see now. The General Assembly has been in session since late January, but all of a sudden the House must either work late into the night tonight or come back at 12:01 a.m. Friday?

 

Those where the options given to House members as they decided whether to suspend their rules to go past 9 p.m.

 

The House is debating another corporate welfare bill. This one involves whether to give $9 million to $10 million to a Washington County paper mill plant.

Posted in: Corporate Welfare • General Assembly • Government spending • State government | Post a Comment »

A peak at the budget

March 12th, 2009, 4:06 pm by

Gov. Bev Perdue’s office is starting to release some of the details of her upcoming budget. They include:

 

– Tax relief for small businesses. Businesses with profits less than $100,000 will be able to exempt the first $25,000 of net income from state tax.  Businesses with profits between $100,000 and $200,000 will exempt the first $15,000.

– Expanding the state’s so-called Earned Income Tax Credit.  Beginning in the next calendar year, the credit would be increased from 5% to 6.5%.

– Money for the Jobs Now initiative.  Gov. Perdue’s budget will invest more than $17 million in community college and vocational education courses and programs focused on job training and preparing students for new 21st century careers. 

– A “Main Street Solutions” program, putting $7 million into aimed at driving regional job creation in small and medium-sized towns and cities.

– $2 million for small companies to match federal innovation grants.

– Excluding initial stock investments in certain North Carolina start-up companies from capital gains. 

– $5 million for the Green Business Fund for environmental-based businesses.

– $3 million investment for expanding North Carolina’s defense and aerospace industry.

– $1.5 million to brand North Carolina as a business and tourism destination.

– More than $47 million in state funds to maximize federal resources for water and sewer and other similar infrastructure projects.

 

So far, no word on where cuts will come from. That’s expected on Tuesday.

Posted in: Bev Perdue • Corporate Welfare • Government spending • State government | Post a Comment »

More corporate welfare

February 24th, 2009, 12:01 pm by

Millions of dollars in corporate incentives in the form of grants and tax breaks were offered in North Carolina last week, according to the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law.

 

The organization’s Corporate Welfare Weekly shows the following incentives offered during the week of Feb 15-22:

 

– $2,540,000.00 to ASCO Power Technologies, by the North Carolina Job Development Investment Grant program. (Contingent upon meeting performance targets).

– $1,000,000.00 to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., from the city of Fayetteville.

– $1,000,000.00 to the U.S. National Whitewater Center, from Mecklenburg County.

– $120,000.00 to Snap-On, Inc. by the One North Carolina Fund.

– $88,000.00 to Limco-Piedmont, Inc., by the One North Carolina Fund and Forsyth County.

– $17,000.00 to Tyson Foods Inc., by the Town of Wilkesboro contingent upon meeting goals.

Posted in: Corporate Welfare • State government | Post a Comment »

More corporate welfare

January 9th, 2009, 11:37 am by

The N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law documents five new incentives packages offered over the past few days. They are:

 

– $600,000.00 to Covation Inc. by the One North Carolina Fund.  

– $232,317.00 in tax breaks to Borg Warner by the Henderson County Commissioners.

– $100,000.00 to Reuel Inc. by the One North Carolina Fund.

– $35,000.00 to Effical LLC. by the One North Carolina Fund. NC Department of Commerce.

– $27,030.00 in tax breaks to Wilsonart International by the Henderson County Commissioners.

Posted in: Corporate Welfare • State government | Post a Comment »

More incentives offered

December 19th, 2008, 11:37 am by

The N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law reports one corporate incentives package offered over the past week. It’s $200,000 to Dopaco Inc., a paperboard packing company for the food industry, which plans to add 123 jobs over the next three years at its Kinston plant. Local funds are expected too.

Posted in: Corporate Welfare • State government | Post a Comment »

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