Gentlemen (Dear Commissioners, October 9, 2012) | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Economic Development Commissions 10 year quest for the relocation of large employers wasted millions of dollars and mired the county in idle infrastructure which is uselessly degrading with time. As of March 2012, even the EDC's pretentious executive director, always wrong but never in doubt, was forced to admit that his strategy was misguided and mistimed. It had become a tapeworm in the county's budget.

    If, instead of building monuments to government waste, efforts had been made to simply improve the regulatory and tax environment of Beaufort County we would have been more attractive to all businesses.

    From Reason Magazine:

    Among the successful American businesses that began in garages are:

    Hewlett-Packard, which began in a 12-foot by 18-footgarage at 367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto, Calif., and grew into a company with nearly 350,000 employees and more than $100 billion a year in revenue.

    Apple, which assembled some of its first computers in Steve Jobs' parents' garage at 2066 Crist Drive in Los Altos, Calif. Apple now has a market capitalization of more than $600 billion.

    Google, whose official company history explains that it set up workspace in September 1998 in Susan Wojcicki's garage at 232 Santa Margarita, Menlo Park, Calif.

    Amazon, which for nearly a year in 1994 and 1995 consisted of founder Jeff Bezos and five employees working in the garage of a Seattle home that Mr. Bezos had rented.

    Mattel, the toy company that is known for Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars and that began in a Southern California garage. Senator Marco Rubio spoke about it in his maiden speech.

    http://reason.com/archives/2012/10/08/mitt-romney-is-wrong-garage-based-busine

    Regards,

    Warren Smith
      Beaufort County