With job creation as our top priority, N.C. can't give up incentives

Jesse White's Nov. 11 Point of View article about economic development incentives ("End incentives and increase jobs") took an academic view of North Carolina's performance-based incentives. Unfortunately, the battles for new jobs in our state aren't being fought in the classrooms - they're being won out in the real world.

And in the real world, North Carolina can't be expected to compete for jobs on the global stage without adequate economic development tools. As long as nearly all other states and countries have incentives, our state should not be forced to compete with one arm tied behind its back. For years, North Carolina didn't have the current economic development policies and our new business announcements were significantly lower than they are today. The economic development tools provided by state and local governments have helped reverse that trend.

Our economic development incentives are primarily performance-based and self-funded by the companies receiving them. Companies are required to create jobs with qualifying salaries within a specific time frame. If they fail to meet those conditions and others, they don't receive the incentives.

With many "legacy" industries in decline over the past few decades, economic developers have wisely worked to diversify and bring in new industries to fuel our economy.

North Carolina must utilize multiple strategies to counter the current job loss and record-high unemployment. And that includes the continued investment in education, training and infrastructure, as well as economic development policies for new and existing businesses. That's the balance the General Assembly and economic development professionals have worked hard to strike - the strategic use of incentives to create jobs through both new and existing businesses.

Now is not the time to disarm our state's economic development efforts or create more confusion through academic conjecture. This is the real world.

And here in the real world, people need jobs.

Katherine K. Thomas

President

North Carolina Economic Developers Association