The latest $30-million handout of tax dollars as an "incentive" to bring a business here got me to thinking.
I want $30-million to bring a business here, too. I make the following guarantees:
• It will create 100 desirable, high-quality jobs.
• The jobs will pay considerably higher than average — $100,000 a year.
• The number of jobs is guaranteed to stay the same for at least three years, which is better than the track record of some of these deals.
• All jobs will be filled by the local work force.
• Not one job will ever be outsourced to India, transferred or downsized.
• All the purchasing will occur right here.
• With every $1 spent, there will be a "multiplier effect." The economic impact will be several times the $30-million.
Now I will tell you what the business is.
But just remember: Every one of the above guarantees remains absolutely true.
My proposal is to hire 100 folks to sit around and drink beer for three years.
No, wait, 99 folks. I get one of the jobs.
Why do you laugh? In fact, my proposal is an even better deal for the taxpayers.
I'm not asking the city, county or state to build me any roads or sewers, or to create any tax breaks.
Heck, I'm not even asking that the deal be made in secret, under some sneaky loophole in state law. Beer in the sunshine, that's my motto.
Over the past three years, my colleagues Sydney Freedberg and Connie Humburg have done a series of reports about economic incentives in Florida.
You already know what they found out.
A lot of jobs and investments soon disappeared, thanks to bankruptcies, relocations and downsizing.
A lot of the money went to big, prosperous companies that didn't really need it.
Government review was usually perfunctory at best, and there was not enough auditing afterward.
Not that it matters, of course. "Economic development" is to Florida government what "national security" is to the federal government — it justifies everything.
The trend continues apace. In Oldsmar recently, you might have seen, the Nielson Co. has announced a series of layoffs after receiving more than $3-million in incentives. Rather than take any more heat, the company charitably agreed to give up another $3.1-million. Thanks.
In St. Petersburg, of course, the city secretly approved an incentive for Jabil Circuit, which was going to disappear in a puff of smoke otherwise.
Is there a legitimate role for incentives for business? I suppose. But they ought to be part of a coherent and targeted strategy, not handed out piecemeal and automatically.
You know what would be good "economic development"? Building a state and a community where people want to live, with high-quality education, protection of the environment, carefully managed growth and investment in quality of life.
I grew up after the Great Society, and was told, time and again, the evils of handing out money to "welfare queens." It doesn't create long-term success.
But that was back when the recipients were poor people, not corporations. I have changed my tune. I want on the gravy train. Give me my $30-million, and I'll see you at the bar, along with 99 of my closest friends. We'll be doing our part for the local economy.
News
