Continuing N.C. Employment Woes Should Prompt Change on Corporate Welfare
RALEIGH — North Carolina’s ongoing struggle with sluggish employment growth provides more evidence that it’s time for the state to change course on economic policy. That’s the advice the John Locke Foundation‘s top budget expert offers after North Carolina registered the largest job loss of any state in November.
As Perdue and the new Republican-led General Assembly look for ways to fill a multibillion-dollar state budget hole, one place to start is abolishing corporate welfare, Coletti said. “As the John Locke Foundation explains in its recommendations for the new General Assembly’s First 100 Days, the focus of state policy should be on economic growth, not government-dictated economic development,” he said. “That means cutting taxes and reducing regulations for all businesses, not subsidizing a privileged few.”
The failure of policies based on corporate welfare should be clear by now, Coletti said. “First, we heard that these special handouts were designed to lure high-paying jobs to North Carolina,” he explained. “Then the corporate welfare targeted jobs — any jobs — regardless of the pay. Then the handouts targeted existing companies that were thinking about creating new jobs. Next, the General Assembly paid off companies to preserve operations in North Carolina even if those companies planned to cut jobs.”
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