Gentlemen (Dear Commissioners, July 9, 2013) | Eastern NC Now

Gentlemen,

    We should be dedicating ourselves to recapturing the state and federal tax dollars that are taken away Beaufort County residents by sourcing grants from outside our community to help fund local needs and by cutting the regulatory burdens placed on local businesses. Please, stop the use of matching grants. These matching grants are funded by increasing local tax burdens for the purpose of funding private interests. This perverse Robin Hood Effect is nothing more than robbing the many to help the few. The point of being a private entrepreneur is to create a business capable of satisfying customer wants in a manner that enables the business to pay its own way. Speaking frankly, any businessman who solicits subsidies is not worthy of being called a businessman. The commissioners can best serve the interests of county residents by giving a clear message that matching grants are dead. Force business leaders to hunt for themselves.

    Sketching an obvious parallel to the Washington Industrial Joke and the Folly on Frederick Road.

    "Building this stadium was a terrible decision, and I and many others said so at the time. But once the decision was made, it drove all the future decisions. Because the hockey team is the only viable tenant to pay the rent in that building, the city rationally will kick back subsidies to the team to keep it in place to protect its rent payments and sales taxes from businesses supported by the team and the arena. The original decision to build that stadium has handcuffed Glendale's fiscal situation for decades to come. One can only hope that cities considering major stadium projects will look to Glendale's and Miami's recent experiences and think twice about building taxpayer funded facilities for billionaires."

   http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2013/07/corporate-welfare-and-the-thin-edge-of-the-wedge.html

    Regards,

   Warren Smith
     Beaufort County, NC