Commissioners have to provide give-aways to sell the Blue Goose | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    At their regular monthly meeting on March 11, 2013 the Beaufort County Commissioners voted to approve a complex business deal to get rid of the infamous Blue Goose and reward the three companies involved with incentives to create 54 new jobs. A third deal was the conveyance of a lot next to the Blue Goose to that company, essentially for nothing, to induce the company to expand.

    You can hear the description of the deal(s) by Economic Director Bob Heuts in the video below. You will also hear the discussion by the board and see the vote. All of the members voted for all of the proposals except Ed Booth voted against the land deal on the lot.




    Commentary

    We as a matter of principle oppose economic development incentive grants. We do so because of several reasons, but the chief among the all is that it puts the government in a position of treating corporate citizens unequally--i.e., picking winners and losers. But we also are opposed to such deals especially when it is not conclusively determined that the company would have not come any way, even without being given special treatment.

    But given all that, we will also say that this deal is the best one Beaufort County has ever made, in our opinion. And it was done more correctly than any previously done. We hope former Economic Development Director Tom Thompson, and his cronies still playing this game in Beaufort County, learn something from Mr. Heuts leadership on this deal. You only need to watch the video above to see what we're talking about. When he finished with his presentation and the board completes its deliberations the public knows what's going on. And that is something we've not had before in such deals.

    The specific reasons the deal is a good deal for the people of Beaufort County now are also clearly articulated in the discussion. We agree with all of them, except Mr. Belcher's conclusion that this is not simply a shifting of jobs from another existing industry (Flanders Filters). There is too much overlap among the principals involved in these corporations to be able to draw the conclusion Mr. Belcher made. We'll save a more thorough discussion of that for later, but suffice it to say here that we don't have sufficient data to determine whether the principals in Flanders management are supplanting these jobs for jobs that would have been at Flanders were it not for this deal. Notwithstanding that, at least the County gets rid of the Blue Goose in the process.

    But back to the main point we want to emphasize here: This deal was done the way it should have been done--above board, in the open and fully explained to the public. As far as we now know. And the taxpayers are finally getting some benefit--cutting our loses--from the Blue Goose and the Industrial Park. We wish this enterprise well.

    Finally, we would challenge the Commissioners then: If this is a good deal why don't you extend it to any and every business in Beaufort County. For every business that creates new jobs and adds value to the tax books why don't you give them a 50% rebate on the additional taxes they will pay by adding to the County's tax base? Why confine this to selected companies. Why not make it equally available to any and every company that wants a piece of this action? We would even go so far as to suggest that for every new business created, or existing business that expands, that they be given a 100% tax rebate for the first three years of operation. Lowering the tax burden is a much sounder way for the County to foster economic development than what we've been doing. If they did, maybe we'd get a Cracker Barrel, Smokey Bones or Red Lobster on the By-pass.